


AQOURS - Aquatic Research Society

by nuenuenue



Series: Love Live! Sunshine!!: Tentacles AU [1]
Category: Love Live! School Idol Project, Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: BDSM, Bondage, Consentacles, F/F, Lesbian Tentacle Breeding, Medical, Parasites, Polyamory, Porn With Plot, Slow Burn, Tentacles, Trans Female Character, Xenophilia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2018-12-24 00:37:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 46,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12001269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nuenuenue/pseuds/nuenuenue
Summary: When Takami Chika enters higher education, she finally realizes her passion in life: the oceans. On her quest to form an aquarium club at Uranohoshi Girls' Preparatory Academy, she will bring together quite the odd but wonderful group of girls - and discover some very unusual things about the world she lives in.Specifically, tentacles.(don't fear the tags - trust your dear author to keep this fun for everyone.)





	1. “I wanna go to aquariums!”

Takami Chika was normal.

Not just Regular Normal, but a real Normal Monster. She had average grades, wasn't in sports, and was practically a unionized member of the “Go-Home Club.” She had never had any real passions to pursue or deep interest in any subject.

“It's frustrating when I think about it more and more! I don't know how to stand out, and I don't know what I'm going to do in my future! I'm just a regular old Dummy Chika.”

She crunched down a crispy gyoza from her lunch as she thought aloud, talking with food in her mouth, of course. She was sprawled out on her bed next to her best friend, Watanabe You, a girl she respected deeply. And had a huge crush on.

You was more muscular than Chika on account of her athletics. She had a serious interest in competitive diving and swimming, with an intensity that Chika figured she could never match. Slowly, she felt like she was falling behind You. Each day she felt the gap widen. Underneath it all, she was afraid she was going to lose You if she didn't find a way to impress her soon.

“What about the ocean?” You replied as she finished her own lunch.

“What about it?” She pouted into her bento.

“Well, there's a lot that goes on in the sea. There's a lot here in town, even. You like diving, right?”

“I do...” It didn't seem to make much of an impression.

You thought for a moment. It was rough seeing her best friend like this, and it brought her down too. It was hard to tell what was really on Chika's mind, though – You knew that Chika wasn't really in tune with her own emotions most of the time (she was a bit of a dummy). Or maybe she didn't want to admit her feelings.

Chika was a carefree girl but You couldn't help caring for her. There was something in her personality that drew You in, a warmth and kindness that made something deep inside her chest feel funny. She didn't want to see Chika force herself away – she wanted Chika to trust You with her feelings for once.

You had an idea. Maybe the answer was right in front of them.

She tugged at the lobster plushie Chika was resting her head on. “You like sea life, right? Don't you have a few more plushies, like that bug thing?“

“Isopod!” Chika piped up, correcting her.

“Right, that! But have you ever seen one in real life?” She added after a moment, “Not at the market or online, I mean alive.”

Chika tilted her head, tapping her chin. “Nope!”

You grinned. “Well, then we're going on a trip!”

“E-eh? Today? Like, right now?”

Right now was exactly what You had meant – full speed ahead, right? She had a good idea and there was no reason to wait, especially if it meant helping her best friend. And maybe she could turn this into a date while she was at it.

*   *   *

A little while later and the pair hopped off of a bus at the Numazu Deep Sea Aquarium.

You's train of thought had been something like this: if Chika keeps restricting herself she's not going to get anywhere, but I don't know what inspires her. But she's pretty forgiving of annoyances, so let's throw ideas at the wall until one sticks.

“Wow! This was right up the road the whole time?” Chika bounced on her heels.

You grinned slyly. “You don't get out much, do you, Chika?” Looks like this plan was already working judging by the sparkle in Chika's eyes.

“Nope!” The other girl threw up a peace sign.

“That's Dummy Chika for you.” She squeezed the other girl's hand and tugged gently. “Come on, let's go in!”

The next few hours opened up a new world for Chika. In the dim teal glow lighting the aquarium, she discovered so many things. It had never even occurred to her to learn more about the ocean even though it was all around her. A strange mood came over her, enthralled her, fascinated her. 

 

Tiny shrimp with twitching antennae, curious and skittish.

 

A nautilus, bobbing along, drifting and spinning, its tentacles searching for food.

 

A shock of spindly fibres, blazing crimson, a basket star blending in with the plant life.

 

Deep-sea sharks, almost like fish, gliding around restlessly.

 

All manner of crabs, moving mechanically almost like robots, gawky but swift.

 

A giant isopod, insectile but calm, standing sentinel, waiting for who-knows-what.

 

An octopus, wise and flexible, with an oddly human glint in its strange eyes.

 

Everything was so quiet.

 

Chika was totally absorbed for the first time in her life. Her mind ran wild with new information, yet she felt very calm. She wished she had a camera and a notebook. A notebook? Since when? Had she ever WANTED to take notes before?

 

Something tugged on her hand and she realized she must have been daydreaming. She was apparently at a cafe a little ways from the museum.

“Chika? Earth to Chika?” You poked her nose with a parfait spoon.

“Uh – ah? Huh?”

You looked at her with obvious concern in her eyes. “You went all silent and weird about halfway through the aquarium.”

“Did I?”

“Yeah?”

“It was all just- just!” Chika perked up, bouncing from side to side in her seat with a sudden burst of enthusiasm. “It was _so cool!_ ”

You stared, then burst out laughing. “Guess I had nothing to worry about, huh?”

Chika threw her arms out and gripped the other girl's shoulders, narrowly dodging the parfait glass (did You get this for them to share? that was sweet) but You didn't stop giggling. “I'm serious! I think this is what I want to do! With stuff!”

“What, marine biology?”

“I wanna go to aquariums!”

You's face screwed up involuntarily. “That's what you got out of this?” The plan may not have succeeded after all.

“Yup!”

Irritated, You gave the ginger a noogie. “BZZT! Dummy Chika has used up all of her mikan powers and is helpless against the attack!”

“Ow ow ow ow!” The two girls made quite a scene in the cafe wrestling at the table, but the few other guests laughed it off.

Coming down from their little scuffle, You sighed. “I guess it can't be helped. You just want to keep going to more aquariums?”

“For now.” Chika got serious but kept her usual smile. “I want to learn more about them – then I might find out what I really want to do, underneath the simple stuff. It's gotta be fun first or I won't get it!”

You made eye contact with her, surprised at this change of attitude. It was a side of the mikan she rarely saw. Maybe...

“I want to start an Aquarium Club at school!”

You nodded and saluted, excited at the change that had come over her friend. The plan had worked after all. “I'm already on the swim team, but we can do events on weekends - aye aye! Let's do it! And now, help me finish this dessert, it's gigantic.”

On the way home, both the girls daydreamed about what they would do in the new club. For her part, Chika couldn't stop thinking about that octopus. It moved so unnaturally, it was hypnotic to her. She wanted one as a pet for sure.

For sure...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi. this is gonna be a long one with lots of weird, passionate, desperately needy perverted kind caring loving lesbians in it. suffice to say that you are gonna get plenty of detail on what exactly's going on here and why and how there are tentacles. if you read Notes on the Species of Gensokyo you can imagine what I mean.
> 
> do you want to become a monster girl? I do.
> 
> http://sealedbeastnue.tumblr.com/


	2. "I'd like to propose a trade.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the first day of classes, Chika is already hellbent on making her dream of an aquarium club a reality. She really ought to make better decisions.

The semester was beginning at Uranohoshi Girls' Preparatory Academy, accompanied by the usual hustle and bustle, the excitement and nerves, the fun sort of tension you'd expect from uni life.

The school was an odd place: a boarding academy, kind of like a college or university, but it was only a two year program that connected you directly to grad schools and encouraged independent research. It felt like an accelerated version of a regular college – pretty much the only school of its kind in Japan.

It was exclusive, too, so it was basically a miracle that Chika got in with her laid-back personality and grades. And on the first day of their first semester, Chika and You camped out at the entrance and started recruiting instead of taking their higher education seriously.

“Aquarium Club! Starting this spring!”

“Aquarium Club! Please join!”

“You and you! Wanna travel and learn about sea creatures? Let's go to aquariums!”

…

“Join the Aquarium Club and learn more about our oceans!”

…

“Aquarium club... the presently super popular Aquarium Club...”

The girls weren't exactly rolling in new member material.

The pair slumped back against the school wall. You tucked her hands into her bright neon hoodie. “Actually, Chika, what were we going to do in the club? We didn't talk about that.”

“Eh-eheh...”

“So you're not sure either.” You exhaled hard, bending over. She started doing stretches to get her blood pumping again. “Ooph. Maybe we should have done more research before we started recruiting?”

“Where's your usual 'full speed ahead', You?” Chika scolded her, but she didn't put much feeling into it.

You was about to reply when she noticed two of their fellow juniors gawking at their sign and whispering to each other, a redhead and a brunette. “Pretty...”

Chika lept to her feet, nearly knocking her friend over in her rush to accost the new students. “Hey! Do you want to learn about sea critters?”

The brunette perked up. “Zura?”

“... _Zura?_ ” Chika questioned.

The girl blushed, covering her mouth. “Oh, nothing!”

Setting whatever that was aside, Chika put on her winning smile. “Don't worry! I'm sure you'll both love it!” She noticed the redhead behind the 'zura' girl scowling at her flyer, trying to read from a distance. Maybe she needed glasses?

Chika wiggled the flyer mischievously and the small redhead followed it with her whole body. She stepped over and asked her, “Are you interested?”

“Do you have trips planned?!” The redhead was almost as starry-eyed as Chika had been after discovering her new passion. Perfect club material!

“Not yet! We've just formed, and we need your help to make it all possible!” On reflex, she grabbed the redhead's hand to encourage her.

The redhead's enthusiasm evaporated instantly as she nervously leapt away, shrieking and scrambling to hide behind her friend. Her face was blushing almost as red as her hair.

“Ruby's a bit shy, sorry!” The 'zura' girl waved her hands, explaining it away.

Chika finished explaining the club to the pair, and they seemed delighted. They were interested enough to sign up! But as she handed them the form, she heard a strange sound coming from somewhere above her. She turned her attention for a moment.

There was a rustling in a tree just over the short wall, then a snap, then a thud as a dark-haired girl tumbled to the ground.

“Zura!”

“Wh-what was that??” Ruby was basically invisible from hiding so hard, and her voice came out in quiet chirps.

The girl who fell stumbled to her feet, rubbing her leg. “Ugh, I'm going to get a bruise...”

“Are you okay?” Chika waved and shouted.

A change seemed to come over the dark-haired girl as she stood up straight, arching her back. She stretched out an arm languidly to point at the mikan, covering one eye with her other hand.

“Is this Earth?”

“I don't think she's okay,” You muttered wryly and headed over to help. What was this girl wearing? A frilled dress on her first day? Everyone else was dressed pretty normally by comparison.

The girl pulled her eyelid up, gawking at the others. “The emissary of Dagon regards you all with her steely eye...”

“Sure, that's all fine but are your legs okay?” You hopped over the wall. She tried to touch the girl but she dodged, wincing.

“Of course they are! This body is merely a vessel!” She stood up as best as possible and stretched out her arms, tilting her head to a bizarre upward angle. “For myself, Yohane, this body was gifted by Great Cthugha to purify this world with flames of - !!”

Suddenly she covered her mouth and squealed quietly as she fell onto her rear. You had finally glotten within poking distance.

As the girl was recovering from her fall, scowling and muttering, the 'zura' girl hopped over the wal too and knelt before her.

“Yoshiko-chan? Is that you?”

“-Hanamaru?” The dark-haired girl gaped for a moment before replying, ”Nonsense! It is I, the emissary of the old ones, _Yohane!_ ”

Hanamaru's reply was simply, “Rock-paper-scissors!”

The girl responded involuntarily, throwing something that looked like a gang sign. “I remember that, that's your 'Elder Sign'! It IS you, Yoshiko-chan!” She moved to hug ~~Yohane~~ Yoshiko but the other girl flailed backward, taking a squatting stance and throwing her arms out.

“Don't call me Yoshiko! Got it? I'm Yohane! My name is Yohane!”

 ~~Yohane~~ ~~Yoshiko~~ Yohane sprinted away as fast as her legs could carry her, and Hanamaru gave chase. “Wait up, Yoshiko!”

Ruby followed behind, seemingly too shy away from the shelter of her friend.

Chika and You weren't really sure what to make of this exchange. But what mattered here is that they had two new club members already! ...As long as they could find them and get them to actually sign the form, of course. The girls made eye contact and jump-high-fived.

“Was it you? The ones handing out these flyers?”

The pair turned around to see a stern-looking girl pointing their leaflet back at them. “Just when did Uranohoshi Girls' School start an Aquarium Club?”

You tensed up but Chika approached her carelessly, stepping into a nest of hornets. “Hi! Are you a junior too?”

 _Chika why are you such a damn mikan all the time?_ You thought. She spun the other girl around and whispered to her. “Chika! She's not a new student, she's a senior! We saw her at the orientation last week!”

Chika screwed up her face for a second, then gasped and interrupted You. “Don't tell me she's the student council president??”

Dia Kurosawa smiled at the pair but her eyes were cold and predatory. It scared the shit out of Chika.

*   *   *

The student council room was dark despite the bright afternoon sun streaming through the open window. Chika covered her eyes. The weird atmosphere in here was messing with her head, and she was already a bit tuckered out from the first day of school. Now she had to face judgment for what was apparently a heinous crime, according to someone.

The president looked intimidatingly professional compared to Chika's stylish but sweet pleated skirt and jacket and You's neon hoodie and shorts. Dia sported a sky blue dress shirt which made her eyes look even more icy than they already were. She wore smartly-pressed black dress pants and black wedge boots, and a single golden chain adorning her neck (matching the cufflinks and buttons, of course!) finished the look. A gray houndstooth sport coat was draped over her chair. Not a single wrinkle or blemish could be found anywhere on the outfit.

“Is she interviewing with Pretentious Snobs Inc. after this...?” Chika muttered.

Dia turned around from her desk, which stood apart from the rest of the student council's seats. She brandished the student handbook. “So. You were gathering members when you didn't even apply, let alone receive permission to start this club?”

“I didn't mean to make trouble. I was just inviting them to join. So I thought I might as well make the application look good first...” Dia scowled at her like an anteater regarding a bug, or something. Chika wasn't really sure what to make of these expressions but they seemed either hostile, defensive, or Dia had a stick up her ass. Any one of those would work. ”Maybe I was jumping the gun?”

“How many members do you have? I only see two here.”

“We had almost recruited two more right before you showed up, President!”

“You do know that you need at least five members to start a club-”

“-that's why I was finding people to join-”

“-and the approval of the Student Council. As long as I am President, an Aquarium Club will never be approved!” Dia slammed the student handbook on the desk, accidentally smacking her knuckles. She sucked in air through her teeth as she massaged her hand gingerly.

You giggled from her hiding spot just outside the doorway. She wasn't so keen to get on the president's bad side.

Chika frowned and tilted her head. “But why wouldn't it be approved?”

It seemed like she had caught Dia off-guard with the question, the other girl fumbling for an answer. Maybe she relied on her bluster to get things done.

The mikan persisted in the face of the apex predator. “It just seemed like you were awfully angry about it... besides, aren't there other people on the student council who will vote?”

“Well, yes...”

Chika scratched her chin quizzically. “You think everyone else on the student council hates aquariums?”

“Absolutely not! I think that you are simply not qualified to apply for such a club!”

Chika was about to ask why, but then the questions started. Dia was not about to let herself get cornered after faltering right out of the gate.

“True or false. Horseshoe crabs are more closely related to spiders than crustaceans?”

“...False?”

“TRUE. A man o' war is one organism, true or false?”

“The jellyfish thing? I guess one, since it's one man-”

“FALSE! What does that even mean, 'one man?' Do you even remember that fish live in the _water?_ ” Chika didn't have much to say about that.

“Next! A group of dolphins is called-”

“A pod! Everyone knows that.”

“-But! What is a group of sharks called?”

Chika hemmed and hawed and couldn't come up with anything. “A danger of sharks?”

“No, but it should be,” You nodded on the other side of the doorway.

“What the hell is wrong with - it's SHIVER! A SHIVER of sharks!” Dia almost slammed her palm on the desk again, but thought better of it. “Anyone with an interest in the oceans should know at least that much!”

“Wow, miss president, you're really passionate about this! Are you sure you don't want to join the aquarium club?”

Dia halted. “A-ah, no. It was shown in a previous iteration that it wasn't a good use of my - of school funds.” The president crossed her arms defensively.

The mikan squinted and leered. ”Are you blushing, miss president?” Chika thought that Dia was starting to seem less like a predator and more like a yippy dog the more Chika saw how she acted.

“No!” Dia responded, too loud to seem chill in any way. “You've just got me remembering a few things I shouldn't be worrying about right now.”

”Are you alright? You're breathing kind of hard.”

Dia screwed up her face, covering it with one hand. “Please leave.”

“Miss-”

“OUT!”

*   *   *

The mikan left. Her friend (kind of cute, but in like a bodybuilder way?) who was watching from the doorway scuttled away with her. Yes, Dia noticed her staring. She noticed everything.

Good riddance to distractions.

Dia huffed and strode to the door to lock it behind the pair. Reckless, fearless girls were always the type to knock her off balance. It was time for her to calm back down.

Lights off, windows open, cool spring breeze. This was her personal cove, her safe haven, now. She listened for a while to the susurrus of waves crashing on the faraway coast, calming down so that she could get some work done.

She sat down, closed her eyes, and breathed deeply.

In a rare moment of slacking, the president felt her thoughts begin to drift. The waves made her think of the ocean, and the ocean led her to her older friends, and to the Aquarium Club. She hoped it wasn't completely obvious that that was why she didn't want to approve their club.

She had a lot of confusing, complicated feelings surrounding the failed club that she would rather not unpack. But it was fun while it lasted. A lot of fun... A lot of really, really strange things had happened.

Okay, that had to stop. Time to focus. Get your pen. Get out the paperwork that needs done by the end of the week. Sort the receipts for the treasurer if you have spare time.

 

Focus. Ignore your nagging thoughts, Dia. Take a few more minutes to close your eyes and clear your head.

 

Focus!

 

Nope.

 

Leave it to an overly energetic junior to make Dia yearn for the excitement she used to feel.

Dia huffed quietly as she remembered the wild, almost unbelievable experiences she had had with her friends. There was a certain unsavoriness to thinking about such things on school grounds – even though a lot of them had occurred on school grounds... Plus, with the windows open, she was practically in public.

Her skin was still a bit tingly with embarrassment from her outburst in front of the two girls earlier. Maybe they had noticed that her hard attitude was just a mask, and that she was just a normal girl. A girl who was not getting enough attention.

It was risky to let that side of her show. Risk was fun, and Dia tried not to have too much fun.

But since she was obviously not getting anywhere in this state of mind, maybe it was time to indulge in some fantasy...

Dia double-checked that the door was locked. Then she rushed back over and triple-checked. The student council was in recess until next week, so nobody should interrupt her, but you can never be too sure about these things.

She slid back into her chair and deftly slipped her pants and shoes off. Her panties naturally matched her shirt and bra. Why shouldn't they? She reached into her bra to massage herself, but her thoughts drifted again. They drifted to things that were a lot more extreme than simple masturbation.

A thrill shot up her spine, it sparked in her gut. It had been a while, but it was definitely time to use _that_.

She fiddled with her keyring, finally locating the cheap-looking key. A perfectly unassuming tool for a perfectly unassuming hiding spot. She unlocked the lowest drawer of her desk. Sliding stacks of old folders to the side, she retrieved the plastic poster tube. Dia carefully stood it up on the desk and braced it against her body, being especially careful not to squeeze it. She gently wedged the lid up, and up, and off.

Dia frowned. “You've grown too big for this tube, haven't you? Sorry. I'll try to find a better one...” She hooked one finger into the tube and started to pull it out. Another thrill of excitement made her nerves tingle as it started to grab her hand. It curled languidly around her finger, slowly stretching out, groping around blindly.

“Come on, wake up, miss. Stop pouting, I already apologized about the tube.”

With a ripple along its length like a snake's muscles flexing, it started to free itself from the enclosure. It uncoiled and wrapped up around the tube's edge, poking its head out.

It was clearly awake and was getting quite riled up, judging by its wiggles. She was getting pretty wound up too. She remembered the last time she felt it forcefully pressing against her... Dia felt herself heating up quickly and she couldn't stop grinning.

“Come out, don't be shy...”

It slowly searched and groped its way out of the tube, flopping onto her. Smelling her arousal, it quickly slithered downward with a flick of its body and coiled around her leg, gripping her tightly. Dia was practically drooling as she watched it grab her, taste her skin. It constricted her leg and slowly, carefully, it started to tease the edge of her panties.

“Mm... oh wow, you're so enthusiastic!”

Dia heard a few voices ring out from the quad below. If they only knew what the student council president was doing, three floors above them! She felt herself start dripping at the thought. She guided it to her entrance and gently schlicked it against herself. It got the idea, thrusting and wiggling around onto her. She gasped. Yes, she had reeeeally missed this feeling...

More voices from out on the quad - “Up there! Be careful!” Telltale signs of horseplay, probably someone playing footbag or pranking a friend. Dia started to feel annoyance but just then, its tail interrupted her train of thought, tickling her lips gently.

“A-ah, please...”

She pressed her lips to it and let it flick against her, teasing her without entering her mouth yet. It was doing the same down below, coiling its long body around her leg and nosing insistently against her labia, grinding on her through her panties.

“Careful, You!” “Come on, you wanted to get it back, didn't you?” More yelling. She tried to tune it out. Shivering, bucking her hips, she felt overcome by arousal. Dia broke off the – kiss? she didn't have time to think of a better name right now – and she pulled her panties down just enough for it to press right against her entrance.

“Full speed ahead!” Please be quiet. This had quickly gone from arousingly risky to very distracting. Dia parted herself and it rubbed against her, barely shoving its head into her entrance. She moaned as it started to fuck its way into her in short thrusts. Sweating and trembling now, Dia guided it into her as it started to fill her and-

“Dia, wh-what the... heck are you doing...?”

Oh no.

Dia's blood froze, icier than her stare. Someone was in the room. She tried to hold very still – maybe they would think it was someone else in her chair, at her desk, wearing her clothes. She gripped it more firmly and it stopped thrusting, pulling out of her quickly.

“Dia? Is that what I think it is?”

No! It's not anything! Please go away!

“Hey, prez. You're not going to be able to hide from Chika. We both see you.”

Dia quickly slid it back into its tube and stashed it in the desk drawer. She silently pulled her panties back up, soaking up the juices that were flowing down her legs. She grabbed her sportcoat from the chair and covered herself. Barely enough time to compose herself, but the adrenaline was a big help.

She spun around to see a very glustered, kind of sweaty Chika and You outside the open window, hanging on to a gutter.

“Why are you out there?”

“We wanted to uh, well, Chika wanted to get the club application off your desk because she forgot it, and I figured we would...” You trailed off.

“And what did you see?” Dia icily replied.

“It w-president, do I really have to say it?” Chika whined.

“What. Did. You. SEE.”

“You had a toy, I guess! And you were m-masturbating!”, Chika whispered. You nodded and averted her eyes. This was not what they had signed up for on their first day of higher education.

Dia sighed with relief. They hadn't seen her front, and they hadn't noticed what it really was... probably. “Okay. Come in. I'd like to propose a trade.”

“But you were just-”

“Please disregard that and come in. You already saw it, this isn't news to you.” They hesitated. ”I don't need you two to fall off the building. You're three stories up right now.”

Chika gulped at that. “You, I'm getting kind of freaked out-OOPH!” The stronger girl hoisted her through the window by her hips, dumping her unceremoniously onto the floor. You gripped the windowsill and frame and lifted herself in as well.

“Sorry, sorry, I didn't know you would get so spooked, Chika.” She patted the mikan's head.

“Sit.”

They sat.

“Here is my offer.” Dia crossed her legs at the ankle, safeguarding her privacy.

“I won't interfere with your application. I will get your application considered at the meeting, and I will abstain my vote, but it's still up to you to convince the rest of the student council that the club will be worth it.”

“In exchange, you will never speak of this to another living soul and you will forget what you saw here.”

The girls started to protest, but Dia cut them off with another icy glare. “And, I'll throw in a gift to sweeten the deal. Please use the name of the previous club on your application – you can change it later if you want. Per the student constitution, defunct clubs do not have their accounts terminated for the first year. And as someone who has access to the records, I can assure you that they were not in the red.”

“So you're bribing us,” Chika mised.

“It's hardly a bribe, you'll have to spend the funds on running club activities. Besides, anyone could figure this out, it's public knowledge.” Dia paused for effect. “But I doubt either of you have read the student constitution, let alone the handbook.” She glanced away disdainfully, maintaining the illusion that she was in control instead of being inches away from having her life ruined.

You scratched her head and grinned. “She's got us there, Chika. I think we gotta accept, huh?”

Chika frowned. “I don't know the name of the old club, though.”

Dia considered scolding for not trying to find it herself, but judging by her arguments earlier, Chika was probably volatile enough to decline the offer if she was scolded. “Aquatic Research Society. Stylized as AQOURS. Account number zero-seven-five-two.”

“Hum, I can't see a reason why we shouldn't accept, You! I guess miss president is pretty nice after all!” You nodded in agreement, giggling.

Dia blushed a radiant crimson, but hid it by turning back to her desk. She wasn't _nice_. She was professional...!

“Understood. I'll consider the offer as accepted. Please proceed with the application process – and don't forget the form. Please take your leave.”

“Miss president, do you mean -”

“By the door. It unlocks from the inside.”

The girls grabbed the form and hastily scuttled away, clearly still a bit weirded out by the whole experience. Dia waited a minute after they left, sitting perfectly still, then swiftly slid her pants back on and strode to the door to lock it again. She shut the windows for good measure.

She felt like she was going to have a heart attack, but she had survived! She breathed deeply, trying to calm her nerves. In her time as president she hadn't faced a challenge that great yet, but she had outwitted them superbly, she assumed.

*   *   *

Out on the school grounds, the two girls were talking about how cute the president acted when she was in charge.

*   *   *

Yes, Dia was becoming quite the persuasive, professional speaker. She nodded to herself. Definitely able to outsmart just about anyone... but she supposed this put an end to her indulgences on school grounds. An exciting risk was one thing, but a real risk was very different.

She hoisted the cylinder back out of her drawer and nestled it gently into her bag. “Looks like you'll be staying at home from now on, miss. Maybe you can live out in the pond.”

As Dia finished up early for the day (wiping down her seat first, of course) she couldn't help but wonder what those girls would do with the revived club.

“Maybe they'll discover the same thing that we did...?” She shook her head. All of that should stay in the past – it was too much for anyone to handle. If those energetic girls retraced Aqours' steps, Dia was sure their descent into depravity would go much, much farther than the original club ever had.

She didn't want to admit it to herself, but that thought made Dia just a little bit wetter than she already was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gee chika what was that? golly you, it sure looked queer! but i didnt get a great look.. aw shucks!


	3. “Wow, that was beautiful, Riko!”

After their – incident, with Dia, Chika and You scooted off of school grounds as fast as they could to avoid the wrath of an angry deity. They were running late to their planned hangout session with Kanan because of the delightful thing that had happened.

Kanan was a high school buddy of theirs, and they had happened to follow her to Uranohoshi. She lived with her family in town instead of living in the dorms, which turned out to be a blessing when Kanan's grandpa broke his leg earlier that year.

The family ran a diving shop, and Kanan was deeply experienced and licensed as an instructor, so she took over for a while and helped take care of him. Chika figured that Kanan might be a valuable resource at the club, if she could get her interested (though that wasn't the main reason they were dropping by).

On the way to the dive shop, You finally broke the silence with a quizzical expression on her face.

“What do you think was going on back there?”

Chika frowned. “You, we agreed never to talk about this again.” And she kind of preferred it that way.

“President's orders!” You saluted sarcastically. She pressed on, though. “No really, what's she gonna do to us, yell?”

The mikan giggled. “Yep!”

You frowned. ”Now that I think about it, I think we got swindled. Too late to do anything about it now, eh. Anyway, what the hell was that?”

“It was big?”

“Sure it was big, but it... it had a weird sort of look to it, didn't it? Like, textured? Wiggly?”

Chika sang softly, “Riiiiiiibbed for her pleasuuuure~”

The muscular girl snorted and guffawed. “Who knewwww the president was such a lewd dweeeeeeeb~!” she chimed back. They both cracked up.

They had to quiet down right away, though, because they had arrived at the shop and Kanan would probably scold them for annoying the customers.

As usual for this time of day, Kanan was ready for her evening swim – hanging out in a drysuit to keep herself warm in the cold spring ocean. The girls, being gay, fixed their eyes on her to try to get a handle on how curvy she was - but drysuits are pretty well insulated, so they didn't have much luck.

Always the mom-friend, Kanan had made tea for them to share.

“Yeah, my pop is getting a lot better now, I'm really relieved – he was getting antsy being idle all the time. I should be back at school by the end of next week. I guess it's a good thing that I didn't have to take my second year off.”

“That's great! He's a cool old guy,” You said pleasantly.

“When you come back, wanna join our new club?” Chika beamed at her.

“Which is?”

“Aquarium club! Named Aqours, I guess? We're going to go around to different aquariums, and learn about – stuff, and I'm not sure what yet but it's gonna be great! We'd love to have you!”

For just a moment, Kanan looked like she'd seen a ghost. Then she laughed out nervously, “Ah, I don't think that's quite my speed.”

“Aww, really? But you're a dive instructor! I thought for sure we could get you in on it,” Chika hummed. She rubbed her chin. “We might be in a rough spot since we still gotta have enough members to apply.”

You had noticed a hanging thread. “Hey, do you happen to know the student council president? She's in your class.”

“Well, she's from an old fishing family. She's probably going to one-up you on your aquatic knowledge. Or did she already pull that one?” She smiled and turned back to Chika, but she evaded her eye contact. ”Sorry, I might be a bit too busy this semester. Best of luck with your club, okay?”

Kanan turned away to the railing, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath of the sea breeze. You squinted – to her, the response sounded more like “Don't ask me about this.” It was bugging her. Chika was too busy formulating an argument to get Kanan to join them to notice it.

You tapped Chika on the shoulder. “She's blushing too.”

“Hm? Kanan is?”

“Yeah, just like Dia! And she's being evasive too.”

The mikan put two and two together. “Wait, you don't think that they were in the club together or something? I wonder if we can get the gossip out of her?”

Their whispering had caught Kanan's attention, and she stiffened up. But just as she was about to scold them for whispering right in front of her, the trio heard something buzzing in over the hills.

“What's that? A helicopter?”

“I think so?” You squinted, her hand shielding her eyes from the evening sun.

“The Ohara family. They own the big hotel chain headquartered in Numazu.” Kanan felt her stomach sink. _Don't tell me she's back in town... The aquarium club AND HER within a minute of each other? What is this messed up timing?_

The helicopter cut around the bay, then turned towards the dive shop, and buzzed fast and low over the dock the girls were standing on. They braced themselves as the wind tossed them around.

“Jeez! What a hotshot!!”

“That can't be legal, can it?”

Kanan didn't say anything. She had caught a glimpse of blond hair. _Yep, that's her. She's definitely up to no good._

*   *   *

The helicopter buzzed on towards the hotel in Numazu. Up there in the air, far out of earshot of anyone and anything else, the pilot jammed out to industrial metal, blond hair flicking in front of her face.

Looks like at least Kanan still lived in town. And who were those cuties with her? The pilot smiled mysteriously to herself, reminiscing and scheming at the same time.

“So it's already been a year?”

*   *   *

Chika and You hung out with Kanan for a little while longer, but failed to tease any more info out of her. No clues as to why she was acting so strangely, or even anything about whether she was friends with Dia. Kanan had diverted all inquiries into pleasantries and small talk. The pair figured they would try her again when she was more receptive.

Chika dozed on the bus on the way back towards town and You wasn't able to wake her up until a few stops too late. Well, many stops too late, really. She debated taking Chika to her place and proposing a sleepover, but it didn't seem... honest. And she didn't want to act too clingy even though it made her chest ache just a little bit to deny herself that.

She woke her up and sent her on her way. “Dummy mikan! Set an alarm next time!”

“Seeya tomorrow, You!”

For You, it was too cold of an evening not to have a warm girl sitting next to her.

As Chika strolled back towards her place, she wished that You would have let her keep sleeping.

She cut down towards the bay, wanting to clear her head after a really strange day. The late evening sun blazed a trail of oranges across the open water, lighting up only the very tops and front faces of the hills, leaving the rest in deep shadow. Homes stuck out brightly on the higher hills, a cascade of neat rows growing dimmer and dimmer further toward the coast. Cirrus tufts glistened high, high at the top of the world, the brighter planets and stars barely starting to shine through the thin canopy. Chika glided past all of it, having a hard time appreciating it when it was this quiet.

She wished that You would have at least walked her back to her place... and possibly slept over. But she didn't want to act too clingy. It wouldn't be fair, even though she really wanted to be closer to her best friend. And to hold her hand, and hold her close...

For Chika, it was too empty of a world to not have a hand to hold.

Chika walked on for a good thirty minutes, passing by shops that closed too early and homes that didn't have their windows open. Nobody else was around. She was almost back to her house when she noticed a girl standing at the edge of a pier on a meager little beach, gazing out to sea.

The girl started stripping down right there.

Chika froze – she couldn't help but stare. Underneath her clothes she wore a standard school swimsuit, much to Chika's surprise. She didn't really mean to swim in the ocean at this time of year?

The girl stretched her legs, tucked her deep, long auburn hair behind her ear, and knelt down. Suddenly, she took off at a sprint.

“W-wait! You can't go in there!” Chika called, running after her. The other girl fumbled to a stop just before the edge of the boardwalk and spun around, much to her relief. Her auburn hair flew around wildly.

“Huh? Why not?” She looked exhilarated, and frustrated to have been obstructed this way.

Chika put her hand to her forehead. She could hardly believe this girl's audacity – she thought SHE was the mikan here. “You wanted to go swimming? At this time of year? Where are you from? It's freezing! You'll die for real!! Like in real life and all!”

The other girl sighed and bowed her head. “Sorry to scare you, I got carried away. I really wanted to go for a swim and see the migration...” She leaned over to sit down,

and caught one foot on the other,

and lost her balance,

and Chika darted out to grab her but she wasn't quite strong enough to lift two people up and

in they went.

A few moments of flailing and splashing later and they had made it back onto the beach.

“You weren't kidding, ow! It's really cold in there!”

“Told ya!! Here, I have a jacket, dry off and warm up!”

“I guess you're more experienced with this kind of thing, huh?”

“We go diving a lot. But you still need a drysuit for at least the next month, ya know?” Chika clasped her hands behind her back and smiled sweetly. “I'm Takami Chika.”

“Sakurauchi Riko,” the other girl bowed politely again. “And you were right, I'm not from around here. My folks moved from Tokyo last week. I wanted to see the firefly squid migration for inspiration.”

“Really?” The mikan cocked her head to the side.

“Mm! A news site I follow said it was going on this time of year, and I thought maybe I could see some of them?”

“I think you'd have to dive a bit deeper and farther out to see 'em at this time of day,” Chika giggled. “Or you could come back at night and wait for them to wash up on shore. They keel over after laying their eggs! We usually see them a few days in a row. The news thing was probably more of a warning about the smell.”

“What? Really?” Riko frowned.

“It's not all fun and games out here in the sticks. You're from Tokyo but haven't _really_ lived near the ocean.”

“...Not really,” she admitted. “But I do know about diving! My parents had me take lessons when I was younger. They're big on that kind of thing.” She looked away, feeling a little embarrassed. ”It's just been a very long time, so I sort of forgot the basics.”

“If you wanna stop by my friend's diving shop tomorrow, maybe we can see a few squids before they go splat?” Chika offered.

“Gross way to say it,” Riko frowned, but lightened up right away. “Sure. I'd love to. You really do seem to know a lot about this kind of thing.”

“Do I? It's mostly just basic stuff you pick up from living out here.” The mikan was surprised that she knew more about _anything_ than someone else did, especially after the royal smackdown she got from Dia earlier.

“You know more than me, at least.”

Maybe she could really cultivate this hobby of hers, as long as she didn't bring down Dia's wrath unintentionally. The president had promised to not interfere with their application, but she wasn't sure how much leeway she had beyond that...

“Well! Then call me Chika the Wise and we'll make that dive happen!” she announced. “Hey, do you go to school around here?”

“I might,” Riko winked.

How mysterious! Chika wiggled her eyebrows, then offered her hand to help Riko back up. “Let's get you back to your place?”

“Sure.”

The pair headed towards Riko's place, and they glanced at each other with increasing suspicion at each corner. They couldn't stop laughing when they realized Riko's folks had moved in right next to Chika's family.

“I guess we'll be seeing a lot of each other, Riko-chan!”

*   *   *

And she wasn't kidding either. Imagine Chika's surprise when none other than Sakurauchi Riko showed up in her first class the next day!

The girls made eye contact immediately and shared an excited grin across the lecture hall. Chika had to put in a lot of effort just to prevent herself from leaping up and inviting her to join the aquarium club right then and there.

Classes went by painfully slowly that day – Chika was too excited! But somehow Riko was in every one of her Tuesday-Thursday classes, and she started sitting next to her right away. They texted each other dad jokes under the auditorium seat-desks. They were quickly going from acquaintances to friends.

Before they knew it, class was out and they were on their way to Kanan's diving shop.

“Just us and the instructor?”

“Her name's Kanan! My other buddy You was going to join us but she's got swimming practice. She might swing by later.”

“She should have just come out and swim with us,” Riko giggled.

“Nooooo~pe! She's super duper deadly serious about swimming.” Chika announced, throwing her hands behind her head. “She wants to go pro! And she probably can, too.”

“You seem a little bitter about it, Chika?”

The mikan shut her mouth abruptly.

“Or sad, or I'll stop asking questions about it.”

Chika shook her head. “Sorry. I want to keep the mood positive, so don't worry about it.” She held Riko's hand. “Let's focus on your adventure today! Okay?”

Riko squeezed her hand in reply. She guessed her new friend needed someone to give her some care right now, so it might as well be her. After all, she was already doing so much for Riko by arranging this dive...

A quick briefing and gear training session.

Suiting up and testing it out.

Instructions on guided diving.

A short swim out to the shelf, and the three girls began their dive.

Riko was surprised at how quickly the pressure built in her ears. She was more surprised at the darkness stretching out below her – it wasn't something she remembered from when she used to go diving, but that was a long time ago and she had been more fearless as a child.

It was still afternoon but light didn't penetrate very deeply into the ocean, it seemed. Maybe the waters weren't so clear because of the changing seasons and the uncertain weather. She felt a swift pulling sensation of vertigo in her guts, as she looked down into the nothingness. But when she squeezed Chika's hand (and Kanan's, who she had just met) they squeezed hers back, and she felt at ease despite the vast expanse of nothingness around her.

They descended slowly, mindfully.

When she looked upward the sun was really pretty, beaming and glistening in the water, gilding each bubble, cresting every wave. She felt a bit of her inspiration start to return, her imagination drinking in the stimulus.

They touched down on the ocean floor. Kanan took in their surroundings and made an open palm face down. She moved it back and forth slowly. _Level off here._ Chika made the _OK_ sign. They paused to get Riko acclimated to the depth.

Riko felt dizzy as she gazed at the pale, blue sky stretching out forever around her.

It was though some force had spirited her away to another world. Was the water this clear on the way down? She was sure it wasn't. Maybe her eyes were just adjusting. Maybe she could breathe underwater now – the sea grasses swept and wafted in the gentle current just like an interminable meadow. She could have sworn some of the were even flowering. Actually, maybe they were?

Tiny fish darted around her ankles. She wish she knew what they were. She could see bigger ones in the distance and she wanted to reach out and feel them, to understand what they were like, to know how they lived. What did they think about, how did they behave? Did they want anything or were they content in their simple lives?

The girls tugged at her arms. _OK?_ said their hand signals. She responded with her own _OK._ Chika's eyes squinted as if she was giggling and Riko surely would have blushed a bit if the water wasn't so cold. Riko couldn't help being a bit overwhelmed! It was all so beautiful... She would have to pinch the mikan for that later. Chika the Wise, maybe, but certainly Chika the Dense.

They picked up off of the seabed and started to glide along in the water. Riko helped paddle them forward even though she didn't have to during a guided dive. She very much wanted to see more of this hidden world.

Riko closed her eyes, letting her friends and her sense of balance guide her. The water was certainly cold this time of year, but other than her face her body was well-insulated and her blood was pumping enough to keep her fingers and toes warm. Her sense of touch was muted, but she could still feel the ever-present caress of gentle currents and puffs of water. They bumped and slid along her frame as they swam.

The water felt incredibly dense around her. The pressure was already pretty significant and she wasn't very far down at all. Riko knew there was some mechanism that allowed living things to survive even more harsh conditions, deeper in the ocean, but she wasn't sure what it was.

It felt like the ocean was holding her. Hugging her.

And then they stopped, and she opened her eyes, and right in front of her there was a squid.

It was much smaller than she'd expected, only an inch or two long. It was almost transparent in places, and it seemed to glow.

Kanan produced a slate and scribbled out a message: “It's looking for a mate! ;o” Riko had caught some of their behaviors from Chika between classes. Apparently firefly squid swam to the surface and bred up here around this time of year, and there would probably be a lot more later tonight. But it wasn't particularly up her alley to go diving with so little experience at night.

Plus you couldn't see them anyway except for the glow.

What she did see right now was an absolutely adorable little thing, gliding around, with a gentle blue glow suffusing its tiny frame. Pinpricks of light seemed to come from all over its body. It was hard to get a great look since it was still light, but she could imagine how the waters lit up at night. It fluttered towards the group, surprisingly curious and not nearly as skittish as Riko had imagined it would be.

Then it floated right up to her face, much to her surprise, like it was about to start a casual conversation with her. Riko looked into its tiny eyes, almost like rivets or little funnels of metal. It was a delicate, innocent thing. Looking at it up close, she felt pretty sad that their lifespans were this short. She felt a little spark of creativity return just then – the beginnings of a song.

She learned as much as she could in the too-short time they were down there, from the subtle orange and red tones in its body, to the subtle motions it made with its tentacles when it noticed some other creature approaching. Riko felt really happy seeing this tiny thing, in its gigantic world, just being there. Living.

She really didn't want the moment to end.

*   *   *

The girls had congregated behind the dive shop for an impromptu hangout session after they got their gear off and cleaned themselves up. Everyone was still a bit drippy but they were all pretty content, enjoying the crackling heat of the fire and the crisp evening air.

Fire baked potatoes were roasting in the coals right now. Everyone was really excited for those potatoes.

“So? Whatcha think?”

Riko wasn't really sure how to respond to Chika. Awestruck? Overwhelmed? Speechless? She smiled anxiously as she realized that she was, in fact, speechless. Nothing had had so profound an impact on her in a long time. She pulled her legs up and hugged her knees.

“Chika, you're awfully bubbly. Aren't you tired from all that swimming?” Kanan offered, winking at Riko. She got it. Thanks, new friend.

“Ah- oh, whoa, I guess I am,” Chika realized, slumping down into her chairs. “Kinda cold too.”

“Then scoot closer! The munchies should be done soon.”

Riko had to admit, she felt lonely on dry land all of a sudden. She wanted a hug but was too shy to ask her new friends. She felt kind of vulnerable.

It was so light up here where the ocean wasn't hugging you from all sides. It was kind of – hollow? Transient, maybe. She wasn't really sure what to call it Days and nights passed fast, seasons came and went, rain and sun and snow and winds, but underwater time didn't seem to flow normally. She thought of the deep, deep ocean and realized it was always the same down there where night and day and seasons and obligations and reality itself barely mattered. You just existed.

Riko felt a deep longing in her soul. She wanted to return, very soon, to that unchanging garden on the sea floor.

“Wow, that was beautiful, Riko!” Kanan whispered.

Chika nodded along with her. “Yeah! I've never heard anything like that!”

Riko's voice cracked as she tried to respond. She suddenly realized she had been humming, then singing the song that had been gestating in her imagination. It was odd and lilting, a lonely melody, somewhere between Celtic music and abstract rambling tones.

“Th-thank you...”

She covered her face to hide her embarrassment but Chika pulled her arm away. “It was really nice!”

The mikan's cheery, smiling face made her heart do a flip; though she had to admit, Chika wasn't the most impressive with her words. She almost reached out and hugged her right there.

“What's it called? Did ya write it for someone?”

“Oho, how bold, Chika,” Kanan quipped as she reached a pair of metal tongs into the fire. Looks like Kanan wouldn't bail her out of Chika's invasive questions twice.

“It's really embarrassing to say.” Riko tried to open up her own body language to make this easier, lowering her feet back to the ground.

“I'm not gonna judge ya. Aren't I Chika the Wise?”

More like Chika the Mind Your Own Business... “No laughing?”

“Promise!”

Riko inhaled deeply. “Well. It's something I wanted to write for – someone special. Another artist I like.”

“Do you have a cruuuush~”

“No!!” Yes.

“Have you thought of a title?” The blue haired girl plopped a well-blackened lump of tinfoil onto her plate, containing that sweet crunchy potatoey goodness.

It was really hard for the composer to admit that she was writing a song for someone, and this might be a step too far. She nipped the potato through with a butterknife and dropped a nice sized butter square in. She hid her face behind it as she admitted that the title was going to be: “ _A Monstergirl's Courtship Song_.”

“I-I'm sorry?” Kanan wasn't sure she caught that. She seemed deeply rattled, but Chika was too baffled to notice. It was especially jarring because of how vanilla Riko had seemed. It was an assumption a lot of people had made and they had all been wrong, but Riko was too private to set the record straight.

“The what – can you say again, Riko?”

“NO I can't say it again sorry I need to eat this - right now - OW HOT!” Riko fumbled and flailed and yelped and managed to land the potato back on her plate without burning herself any more than she already had.

Chika pulled up her towel to clean the hot butter off of her chin. “Y'know, Riko, I didn't know you were a super weirdo. But that's really cute!”

The composer pouted as she wiped her chin off, and she took halting nibbles from her potato. She was an absolute mess right now and her skin was on fire from self-imposed shame (and thankfully not from the actual fire). “Chika-chan's being a bad girl making me admit all of this, so I won't sit next to you in class now.”

“Whaa?? Why!”

“You know why!” She retorted.

“I can't concentrate in Japanese history if I can't get my Riko Recharge!”

“Nooooo~pe! How in the world did you get through high school with that kind of attitude?” She had to admit, having Chika rely on her this much was kind of sweet. Did Chika really already have a nickname for her?

While the girls were busy teasing each other, the window for Chika to ask why Kanan had been acting strange had come and gone. She wasn't any the wiser. The dive instructor had composed herself enough to join the conversation again, but she was pretty sure she would have to pay it a visit down there sometime soon.

She was also really thankful the girls didn't notice the long, serpentine shadow that tracked them all but kept just out of sight. It must have been getting lonely after she'd been away all winter.

“Chiii~ka, you shouldn't tease your new friend.” Kanan gave the ginger a chop to the shoulder.

“Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~ne!” The mikan drawled sarcastically for at least ten seconds, sending them all into a laughing fit.

Their laughter echoed into the night air for hours, right up until the first drops of a light spring rain began to fall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for your readership thus far. I don't think anything I've put out there has gotten this popular this fast...! riko is just a sweet girl who wants to be vulnerable and write songs. what's wrong with that? nothing
> 
> the next chapter  
> is yohane  
> and I assure you  
> it will be  
> very nsfw


	4. “Enter, supplicants, and make your offering.”

Tsushima Yoshiko was normal.

Despite her best efforts, and despite her assertions to the contrary, it was true. Yohane, emissary of Dagon, a star-spawn, half-shoggoth - and whatever else she was feeling like claiming that day - was just a regular human girl, average in most ways. And she hated it. She had never been able to escape the strangling restriction of her own humanity.

Well, when you got down to details, there were a few things that set her apart from the ordinary. For one, there was the star-spawn thing she had going on. Another one - she didn't always used to be a girl. But that all happened at such a young age, and she was centered and confident now, so the struggle was pretty much in the past... though she didn't exactly put that fact out there for everyone to know. For the most part, she was satisfied with her body and herself.

Except the human thing. That was _inconvenient_ , to put it mildly.

Since a young age, Yohane had a yearning to be something greater than, different from, herself. She projected herself onto cryptids and beasts and strange tales of horror. She always played the monster in playground games, and she loved it.

Sure, she still admired other things kids admired – princess stories, tales of adventure, heroes, the usual. But monsters, they were closer to her core. It felt right to her, to immerse herself in another persona, to be something inhuman for a while.

As she grew up she started to become really absorbed in the persona she had cultivated. Having more personal agency and the freedom to explore her own personality were a blessing. Thank you, laid-back parents! She started to self-aggrandize, to project her idealized version of herself into her daily life. She became an extreme chuuni. It quickly grew from a simple obsession to part of her personality, an essential part of her self.

So you can imagine that as she approached adulthood, the world started to seem so stifling, so restricted. It was too damn normal! There was no magic out there, no monsters, no real mysteries! Just PEOPLE! She couldn't deny that it was true – she was a chuuni but she wasn't an idiot. It felt too wrong, it felt like the world was trying to choke her sense of self away from her.

Though the tentacle porn did help.

Yohane discovered it at a healthy age, if there is such a thing, and it was probably the first time she understood her own sexuality. It had become tied inherently with this persona without her realizing it. Maybe her parents were a bit too laid back after all.

Masses of tentacles, sliding up a schoolgirl's thighs... mind control, egg-laying, transformation... Apparently there was a whole world out there that shared her ideas and feelings. But in a sexual way. But maybe that was okay too? She had never thought about it this way before.

She saw the flaws in even the well-regarded authors' works; so, being a girl of initiative, she started drawing her own tentacle porn. She started with doujin works and quickly rose to prominence in the major circles, selling at Comiket under her star-spawn persona with a fake registration (she was still a bit too young after all). Her illustrations got better and better, and her writing got more engrossing and original as she worked and worked on.

Within about a year Yohane had her own illustration stream that people actually watched! She was notable enough to be able to sell her original works. She finally had an outlet for her own obsession, her fixation. She also had the spare cash to amass a pretty impressive toy collection...

And in spite all of that, in spite of all of that success and acceptance, she still could not be truly satisfied with the real world when there was no magic in it. It stung, it ached, it gnawed at her. She would not let this go as she became an adult, no matter what happened. She had to be true to herself.

And that was Yohane's life story, which led to her embarrassing debut at Uranohoshi.

After falling out of a tree, fleeing across the quad in a chuuni frenzy with her childhood friend chasing her, turning her own face red multiple times in lecture trying to contain her own outbursts, and spilling her lunch on herself in a fit, Yohane was done with school. Done! Permanently! Definitely no chance of going back ever forever! Society was clearly not ready for her, so obviously she had to flee to Innsmouth and join her fishy people now.

In other words, she sprinted back to her dorm as stealthily as possible between class periods, holed up in her (single) room with her nest of tentacle plushies and unsavory toys, walled herself in with cup ramen and cheap convenience store snacks, and started furiously scribbling out her next work's thumbnails on her tablet.

In the dark.

For like two or three days straight.

This one was gonna be her masterpiece, she could already feel it. It was about an orphaned girl who became one with the tentacles, living with them and sharing her body with them. She spent her time as a wild hermit, seducing cute girls and filling them with her tentacles to breed inside them. Yep, seems good. She could definitely get off to this many, many times if she made it work... The thought of the final product had her drooling.

She wrote an outline and storyboarded it, then did rough sketches for the characters. Time was no longer real to her. She had her panel layouts done and was about halfway through lineart, then

_Knock._

Then the... uh...

_Knock knock knock!!!_

Who in the-

_SLAM!_

“Yoshiko! Hey, open up! Did you get sick, are you okay zura?”

On Thursday morning? evening? afternoon?, when Yohane was deep into her descent into madness, with rain tapping at her window and a certain trio wrapping up their impromptu cookout across town, Kunikida Hanamaru came by to meddle.

“Begone, mortals! The last true descendant of Innsmouth commands it!”

“Yoshiko, you seem lively! That's good zura!” She heard a soft murmur of agreement outside the door – probably Zuramaru's cute tiny shy friend.

“It's YO-HA-NE! You will address me as such!”

“Okay, got it, Yohane! Well, we thought we would make you some dry curry rice and tempura but you seem busy. We'll get out of your hair zura!”

“W-w-w-w-wait! Wait wait wait! The great Yohane must carefully consider this offering...” God dammit. Leave it to Zuramaru to remember her favorite foods, the accursed temptress was trying to get her to come back to earthling society... Did she have nothing better to do at that shrine out in the sticks than remember her bestest ever childhood friend's favorite foods?

Yohane decided it was time for decisive action. She had to consecrate the inner sanctum to receive the offering. This sacred act consisted primarily of first, preparing the offering grounds by shoving fistfuls of snack wrappers and discarded ramen cups into garbage bags as quickly as possible and hiding them in the closet. Next, the cleric had to clean their body by getting out of the nasty hoodie and shorts they'd lived in for the better half of a week and into something more respectable. Finally, the mind must be purified, by stashing all of the many toys that had accumulated in her bed - though she had been too preoccupied to use any of them...

The hegemon of the lost city of R'lyeh cracked the door open, covering her face with a dark cape, peering out from the formless depths. “Enter, supplicants, and make your offering.”

“Hi, Yohane!” Hanamaru chimed and bumped the door open, flicking the lights on.

“O-ow, my eyes! Curse you, mortal...” Yohane squinted. “And my name is YO-wait, you got it right.”

Hanamaru beamed at her. “You're pretty lively! You must not be too down-in-the-dumps?”

“I'm fine! Do I really give off such an impression of weakness?...”

A giggling sounded out from nowhere. The daughter of Dagon noticed red hair peeking out from behind Hanamaru. She nudged the zura to the side and her cute tiny friend was behind her.

“You were running across campus screaming! It was pretty funny,” the redhead giggled again.

Yohane scowled. "Everything. Is fine."

They made quite the motley crew – Yohane in her cultist robes, plum with golden trim, almost succeeding at not looking horribly disheveled and pale; Hanamaru apparently dressed for fall weather in a yellow button-up wool coat, checked scarf, and skinny jeans (must have been cold outside today, Yohane assumed); Ruby dressed sweetly in pink and a poofy black skirt with her hair ribbonned up in twintails, just a bit too young for her age.

The cultist invited the pair in, and they all managed to situate themselves awkwardly around her end table on some cheap folding chairs. Yohane flicked the light off again, preferring the dimmer lamp on her bedside table.

They made idle chatter as Yohane dug into the dry curry onigiri. It was excellent, as she had come to expect when Hanamaru started cooking. There was enough for all of them, so the other girls grabbed one as well. It was like a little dinner table all of a sudden – in the dark, lit only by Yohane's bedside light.

Well, more like a cave than a dinner table, she supposed.

“It got really chilly last night... when's spring going to come?” Ruby hummed.

“Cthugha will surely bathe the world in flames soon, fufu...”

“I'm not so sure about that,” the brunette shrugged. “That American groundhog said there would be six more months of winter zura! It really must be the future if groundhogs are talking now!”

“They said six weeks, Hanamaru. Does that even apply to us all the way across the world?”

“Ludicrous. Lesser creatures could never hold the gift of sight through space and time. That is reserved for we who have studied the darkest secrets of the Necronomicon.”

Zuramaru plopped down, nestling her chin into her hands. She turned to the dark-haired girl. “So everything's fine with you zura?”

“I already TOLD you, there are no difficulties within my domain.”

“You're silly!” The little redhead giggled _again_. “Why do you act like that, Yoshiko? Is that from an anime or something?”

The dreaded beast grumbled. This would not do. This girl was cute but Yohane was in a weird mood from working on her doujin for days on end. She thought it would be nice to have a little fun at her expense.

Yohane stood and stomped over to Ruby, who squeaked and went mum. “Quite bold of you to say such a thing in my temple, mortal.”

“I didn't – mean to offend!” Beet red face, just like her hair. She was a cute and tiny girl, wasn't she? Ruby's defensive body language made her look even smaller than she was.

“A lovely hue of embarrassment for a frail little thing...” The cultist had turned the tables on the maiden very quickly. Ruby shrank from her, sliding sideways off the chair and bumping into the bedframe. What a reaction! The cultist thought she was beyond adorable.

Zuramaru tried to pipe up and interrupt them. “Did you want the tempura, Yohane? It's going to get mushy.”

Yohane did not want the tempura right now. Yohane was thinking about what she could do with her new plaything. Ruby was turning out to have even cuter reactions than anticipated, and she was aching to have some fun in her persona. She would have to apologize to Zuramaru for messing with her girlfriend later.

The daughter of Dagon pushed Ruby to a sitting position on the bed and she yelped. She curled one hand around Ruby's chin and placed the other on her thigh, kneeling to look her square in the eye. Ruby was absolutely crimson by now, and she was trembling.

“Mortal.”

“Y-yes!”

She tilted her head. “Do you wish to become my little star-spawn?”

“Ah! Uhm! You're really close! To my face!”

She licked her lips. “Do you wish to make a sacrifice to lord Dagon? Or will you appease us in some other way...?”

Zuramaru chimed in with “No I don't think she wants to do either zura” but Yohane paid her no heed. She shoved her face right up into Ruby's and whispered to her. “I can show you nameless secrets from another world... just say the word... surrender your soul to me... _Ia! Ia_!”

Ruby tried to lean back to escape and lost her balance. She flailed, starting to either freak out or feel very dominated. Her hand slid under the covers as she tried to stabilize herself and she found Yohane's tablet, and the tablet was very much unlocked because she had forgotten to do that while cleaning up, and it definitely had weird tentacle porn on the screen, and so naturally the worst possible thing happened: Ruby pulled it out without thinking and looked at it.

Ruby went dead silent and stared at the screen.

Yohane went dead silent and stared at Ruby.

Zuramaru was clueless like usual. “What are you two looking at on that rectangle thing? OH! Oh, uh! Huh!... Ooh... That's... You got a lot better at drawing, huh, Yoshiko? That's pretty impressive!”

She nodded. “Right. Thanks.”

A lingering moment of dead silence. Yohane quickly snatched the remaining tempura from Hanamaru and turned away to scarf it down. She gazed blankly into the reused takeout container, her thoughts weren't coming, her muscles were tense. She was useless for over a minute.

She felt something snap in her brain.

“Okay. So, my life is over now, because now people know I draw tentacle porn. I can never go back to school. I'll have to work at a convenience store for the rest of my life. Eheh. Eheheheheh!...” She laughed maniacally, clutching Ruby's shoulders. She got right up in her face and the eldritch horror's expression contorted into something lunatic and uncontrolled. “Go ahead, tell me what you think, RUUUU-BY!”

“It-it's hot!” She squeaked.

“Eh?”

“It's really cute! I like their faces and reactions and it seems like it must feel really good to be held by the uh! The... tentacles...”

Yohane was shaking with nerves, struck with disbelief. Her hormones were doing some baffling things at the moment – surging waves of panic and fear and a little bit of arousal overcame her. She started to sweat from the stress.

“Is that so?” She realized Hanamaru and Ruby had been silent not out of shock, like she was. Instead it was because they were scrolling through the pages of her half-finished doujin.

Zuramaru was practically drooling as she fixed her stare on the tablet. “Mm, mm! I'm with Ruby on this one. This is super cute, Yoshiko! Do you publish these, do you have any more? Where can I read them?”

“Well, people upload them on – wait, isn't this weird? Are you two weird or what? You like tentacle porn?” Yohane clutched her head to prevent her brains from flying out. “Is this not disturbing to you?”

Ruby was still very red but she seemed determined to explain something. “It-it's what you like, isn't it? Why should you feel perverted for that?”

“I didn't say perverted, I said... never mind, I give up. I don't understand anything. It's fine! Everything is normal now!”

Yohane flopped onto Ruby's lap - but squealed in pain immediately and sat back up. Something little, but very hard, had poked her in the eye through the redhead's skirt. “Ow! Ruby, is that-”

Ruby was whimpering, even redder than her hair somehow. She cut her off. C-can we read some more?”

The Innsmouth descendant's face was indescribable. She glanced over at Zuramaru who was rapt with attention, totally absorbed in the image on her tablet, her cheeks starting to flush.

Yohane was suddenly forced to confront the possibility that she was not the only sexually active pervert in her immediate social circle. Maybe everyone was like this, in reality. That possibility was oddly freeing to her.

Okay. So this was happening, then.

Deep breath.

The cultist sat calmly in the middle of her bed, leaning against the headboard.“Well... it seems I've found two little star-spawn to join me in worship of our ancient tentacle deities. Come hither.”

“Huh?” the girls replied, dazed.

“SIT next to me! I'll find us a good one from my archives...”

Hips on her left. Hips on her right. Ruby and Zuramaru were suddenly sidled right up against her body, pressing into her, too close for comfort. Not that comfort was a big concern here, though. Everyone seemed to have other things on their minds. She started to heat up.

Yohane flipped through her folders to find one of her most well-received original works, _My Little Sister Can't Be This Eldritch?!_

It followed a commonly tread path in hentai – older sister goes off to college, leaving her precious little sister at home with the folks. When she comes back to visit, her sister has blossomed into an adult (though she's still quite shy) and Feelings start to occur. Gazes that linger too long; excessive skinship while bathing; increasingly awkward and evasive conversations. Things seem to be heating up fast.

“They'd be so cute together zura...”

“I wonder if they'll kiss?”

“Huhuhuhu... You wonder indeed...”

Then the family sits the older sister down to have a talk with her: they're descendants of cultists stretching back untold aeons, and their deity was reincarnated as her younger sister. Of course it was. As her chosen partner, it was her duty to satisfy her little sister's lust and keep her madness in check until she could control her abilities.

The usual stuff.

Despite her calm aloofness, Yohane was screaming internally as she swiped to the next page. The girls beside her were both getting really excited and it was her artwork that caused it. They seemed extremely focused, but squirmy. Shivering and fidgeting unconsciously. Lips were parted. Breath quick and shallow. They made their own involuntary sounds of excitement with each new page.

Ruby and Zuramaru gently edged closer, each one putting their hand on Yohane's back at different heights. She leaned back into them a little bit to acknowledge their touch. She was melting at the contact. She... wanted more.

When they finally got to the reveal, there were gasps from Ruby and Zuramaru. This was the sell, and it was suitably dramatic:

A full two page spread. The older sister, obviously incredibly thirsty, straddled the younger sister on the sofa. Perspective over her shoulder, looking down at her precious younger sister, who looked submissive, shy, and nervous. They were both still fully clothed but both were sweaty already.

In the background reality faded away to a panorama – a bizarre family tree of cultists and monsters and eldritch beings stretching deep, deep into the edges of the frame. Yohane had sketched in upwards of a hundred allusions to tales of eldritch horror, more traditional and historical figures, and a fair few references to other tentacle porn works. It was a swirling and mad panoply of horror and the unthinkable that had taken Yohane weeks to illustrate.

“Is it true? Is my little sister really something like that...?”

Second full two page spread. Black, with a single sound effect: _CRACK_.

A third and final two page spread. Back in reality, on the same couch, in the same house. The sisters were completely disrobed. The older sister still straddled the younger one, but she looked submissive and dazed now. Her younger sister was suddenly in charge, her gaze full of lust, outstretching her arms to offer up her body.

Her little sister had become a scylla. The lower half of her body was a writhing mass of tentacles dripping with sticky goo. Some were limbs, some were mouths, some were phallic. Her suckers gripped onto her older sister's legs leaving dozens of hickeys and bite marks. She was slithering up towards her older sister's most private place and Ruby and Zuramaru were suddenly making out on top of her when did that

start

to happen oh wow this was really intense... Yohane watched as Ruby tugged at Zuramaru's collar with both hands, willing her to come closer, egging her on – and Zuramaru whined and grasped around the back of her head, pulling her in, tasting her lips. Ruby withered, she whimpered, she parted her sensitive lips and Zuramaru forced her way in. Ruby squirmed and whined and groped Zuramaru's chest, who held on to her tightly.

Their tongues danced, both of them huffing and panting as Zuramaru pushed Ruby down onto the bed. Their clothes were about to start coming off, and it seemed that they were both sneaking glances at the bed's owner as they tangled up with each other.

Okay, Yohane. Your cute friend and her cute girlfriend are dry humping in your bed right in front of you. Because of your tentacle doujins, which they begged you to show them. And they seemed to be especially friendly with you as well... What do you do, Yohane?

  1. Let them fuck
  2. Kick them out
  3. Get in there with your tentacles



There was really only one right answer, huh?

Yohane chuckled deeply and cruelly, her quickly-building thirst coming through in her husky voice. “You two. My newest little star-spawns. Do you want this Elder One to make you feel good?”

They broke off their kiss and both girls giggled nervously.

Yohane just reached down into her toy stash and pulled out a few vibrators and tentacle shaped dildos. She set them in front of the girls and grinned. “Will you pay tribute to the Old Ones with your bodies?”

Ruby and Zuramaru gawked at her, but Yohane stood her ground. She turned on one of the vibrators and she saw Zuramaru's eyes light up with excitement.

Yohane got right up in her face. “Oh? Is that a yes, initiate?”

“I've always thought you were really pretty, Yoshiko...” Hanamaru purred.

“O-oh?” This caught Yohane totally off guard, so much so that she didn't even correct her name.

“You're really close. Did you want to kiss me?” Her eyes were bright and thirsty.

Damn it, how did the zura always know how to get to her? This girl was dangerous. She definitely wasn't as innocent as she let on, she must have been doing lots of Things with Ruby. And her face was really, really sweet. Yohane wanted to push her around.

Yohane dug her fingers into Hanamaru's hair and forcefully pulled her in, delicately teasing her lips against the other girl's. She smelled like honey. She was taking air in short puffs, each one a little gasp against her. The dark-haired girl felt her own slippery precum start to soak into her panties, turning cool as it drizzled from her tip – she was kind of glad she was hidden under her cultist robes or she would feel pretty embarrassed about that. When did her friend get this hot, anyway? Who gave her the right?

She slowly dragged her tongue along Zuramaru's lips. Zuramaru met her with the tip of her own tongue, teasing her right back. The girls whined into each others' mouths.

There was no going back now.

Yohane felt herself instinctively pounce onto Zuramaru, tackling her. She entwined their fingers and pinned her to the bed. She shoved her tongue roughly against the brunette's neck, digging around in hot circles, scraping her teeth against the thin skin, smelling her scent.

Zuramaru whimpered and tried to grind her hips against Yohane, and she reciprocated for just long enough to tease her – but then she moved the brunette's leg away. She tucked one of her favorite egg vibrators against her palm, one covered with ridges and bumps and tentacly suckers of purple silicone, and she pressed it against Hanamaru. She made eye contact with her.

“Please turn it on zura...”

Yohane grinned cruelly. “What an obedient offering...” She buzzed the vibrator quickly up to half of its maximum intensity and Zuramaru yelped, gasping and forcing her hips up into it. She fell back onto the bed, shivering from the intense pleasure, whispering “Yoshiko... Yohane...”. Her slick was starting to soak through her jeans. Yohane felt her dick throb as she realized just how ridiculously turned-on the two girls had gotten from her illustrations.

Speaking of girls, where was that tiny one?

Yohane turned to gaze at Ruby, while continuing to roll her right hand carelessly against Hanamaru's pelvis. The redhead had been watching them with a dazed expression, rubbing the base of her palm against her little bulge through her fluffy skirt, the other hand groping her fairly flat chest. Everything about the girl was petite.

“You, mortal. I see you have enjoyed watching this ritual sacrifice.” Yohane watched as awareness started to return to Ruby's features, the redhead trying to look away shyly but obviously being unable to break her gaze.

“C-can...”

“Speak up, human.” Yohane held Ruby's chin with her left hand, looking down her nose at her.

“Can you kiss me like that?”

The tentacle girl laughed, deep and throaty and evil. Her eyes glinted as she forced Ruby to make eye contact. The girl was already melting and she had barely touched her.

“I could just _eat you_ instead, human.”

Yohane went for the kill. She gently took Ruby's lower lip between her teeth and scraped, pulled, teased her forward. She could barely make out the begging and pleading Ruby was trying to express as she tasted her. The smaller girl squinted her eyes and lost strength and she slid downward. The dread cultist gripped her roughly and locked lips with her, wrapping her tongue around the redhead's and drinking in her taste, her scent.

Her chest was itching for stimulation and she pressed her body onto Ruby's. She felt the smaller girl's hips gyrate and she wanted more. Their noses rubbed against each other as they made out, hard. She made eye contact with Ruby in a brief moment of lucidity and the lust and helplessness in her emerald green eyes was delicious.

Ruby melted completely and she fell onto Yohane. She barely mustered the strength to pull one of the eldritch girl's hands to her chest and the one holding the vibrator onto her bulge. Hanamaru scrambled to follow it with her whole body, and she fumbled to grab a second and third and fourth vibrator out of the bag of toys, whining for more stimulation.

“So forward for such darling little creatures.” She rumbled with even more cruel laughter, reveling in her persona. She ordered them: “Remove your clothes, my lovely sacrifices. My tentacles grow most impatient.”

Hanamaru wasted no time getting down to her plain white underwear, a single pink bow right in the center of her bra and her panties. A matched set. Her hair was messy and her face was flush with need, her breaths whiny and shallow. She was smiling. Yohane stroked her cheek, finding herself acting a bit sweeter than she expected.

“Fuck yourself on my leg.”

The brunette nodded obediently. She shoved the fistful of vibrators between herself and Yohane's thigh and clung to her as she wrapped herself around her. The cultist could feel the vibrations coming through her body and she could not have been harder as her oldest friend started to grind against her, but she refrained from touching herself.

“I'll do anything for you, m-mistress...”

“What a perverted, pretty thing you are.”

The brunette pressed kiss after kiss onto Yohane's foot, panting, glistening with sweat, her hips rolling and grinding, rubbing her flank against Yohane's bulge as she gave herself over to pleasure. Her juices flowed freely onto the eldritch girl and her sweet scent hung heavy in the air.

“Yes, you're filling your role quite nicely, sacrifice. And you...”

Ruby was, to her surprise, not wearing especially cute underwear – she had on a simple black sports bra and tight, form-fitting undershorts. Her bulge tented adorably, but she obviously had some reservations about her body.

Yohane pulled her in and licked up her ear, frotting her own significantly larger (but fairly average) bulge against Ruby's. A look of realization flashed over the small girl's face and she nestled comfortably into Yohane's side, slowly grinding against her. She looked peaceful and contented all of a sudden. That was a bit too nice for Yohane, though.

“Just what do you think you're doing? You don't have nearly enough of my lovely tentacles filling you, sacrifice.”

Ruby smiled. Why were both of these girls _happy_? Yohane was supposed to be SCARY!

The eldritch horror scratched roughly up both of their backs and Hanamaru yelped and shoved against her even harder, reaching down to finger her clit against the vibrators. (when did she take off her underwear, anyway?) She gave Zuramaru a firm squeeze on her ass and she exhaled, hard, and dragged herself against her thigh shakily, clinging desperately.

Ruby moaned softly from the scratch, partly scared, partly comfortable. Yohane reached behind herself to fish around in her toy bag for something that would fit the redhead.

“Will you give your body to this tentacle, sacrifice?” She held a tightly corkscrewed silicone thing, almost like a spring. It was firm, but soft, and just tight enough to be appropriate for Ruby's size.

The redhead nodded quietly. “Please... please touch me, Yoshiko...” She slid her shorts and bra off as the monstrous girl warmed up the toy with her hands and lubed it up.

Ruby was really quite flat, barely making it to A-cup status, but she was soft and filled out in all the right places, with just a little bit of belly. Her hips were a lot more full than Yohane had expected judging by her build. Her skin looked so soft and so delicious, and she had a cute sparse treasure trail just barely dark enough to stand out against her skin. She was blushing so much that it was a miracle she was still conscious.

Yohane couldn't stop herself from teasing her lips one more time with a finger – then with the tip of the toy.

The dark-haired girl wrapped one arm around Ruby and pulled her tight and close, nibbling her ear gently. She coiled the end of the toy around her length and slowly started to spin it, spiraling it down her cock, the friction just enough to pull her foreskin back. The small girl cried out and squeezed her hands against her chest.

“A-aah! That's...!!” She could barely form words, her head was spinning, her eyes seeing stars.

The edges of the toy ground around her sensitive, little head, and she throbbed. She nearly screamed from the pleasure and covered her mouth quickly – then thought better of it and shoved a pillow onto her face to hide her embarrassing expression.

Yohane took a moment to appreciate her chest with her free hand, squeezing her gently. She made a V with her fingers, sliding and pinching them against the sides of the redhead's perky nipples. Ruby basically fell right over onto the bed and grabbed the toy off of her to slide and frot her cock through - going a lot harder than Yohane had been.

She jammed her face into the pillows, one eye poking out to stare needily at Yohane. The dark-haired girl reached beneath her to gently fondle her balls and press her fingertips against her groin. Ruby gasped into the pillows from the sensation, her hips moving faster still, her face now hidden, her little cock rubbing a trail of precum onto the sheets. Her scent, too, began to fill the air as she dripped onto the bed.

Suddenly, Hanamaru climbed and pounced back onto Yohane and shoved her down onto the bed.

The eldritch horror hadn't had a chance yet to appreciate how mature her friend had become. Her thighs nestled together, full and slick with her juices. She was close to thick, but more... buxom? Yohane hated that word but it was the only thing that she could think of in this atmosphere. Hanamaru was really curvy, really soft, and really kissable. There, that was better. Kissable.

Anyway, she had matured from a dorky country yokel into a slightly dorky hot girl who was incidentally a country yokel. Kind of like Yohane had matured from a weird chuuni boy into a hot (?) weird tentacle artist chuuni girl. Life was like that, she figured.

ANYWAY ANYWAY.

Hanamaru slid her arms behind Yohane's back and held onto her as she looked her right in the eye. “I want to sit on your fingers, Yoshiko.”

Yohane growled and grabbed a fistful of her hair, spinning her around forcefully to face away.

“How dare you refer to me by such a vulgar name. You'll have to take all of my fingers as punishment, sacrifice.”

Hanamaru just purred, lowering herself onto Yohane's waiting hand. She gasped as the cultist curled her fingers into her at a torturously slow rate, parting her folds gently, sliding inside her with her pointer and middle finger. She easily slipped her ring finger inside of her, and the brunette bucked against her, squeezing her tight.

“H-harder!! Please!”

“Uhu... I might really have to eat you two at this rate.”

Yohane traced circles inside of her, slowly schlicking her thumb and pinky against her outer folds, bunching them up, feeling her burning heat and slick wetness, and making Hanamaru grind harder still against the friction. Her back muscles flexed and rippled, just visible underneath her cute layer of softness.

But the girl needed more stimulation. Sensing this, the eldritch one reached back into her toy bag and grabbed one of her favorites – a more traditionally tentacle-shaped dildo, complete with suction cups and a wide head.

“Grind on this, sacrifice. Give your body to the tentacles in earnest.”

She pushed it against Zuramaru's front with her free hand, and the girl squeezed her even tighter as she brushed her swollen clit against its texture. Yohane licked up her neck, nibbling on her mercilessly.

“Yohane... please... more fingers... don't make me wait please _please_!”

Another cruel laugh sounded from the cultist as she slipped her hand out of the brunette. Hanamaru whined but then gasped uncontrollably and shuddered as Yohane slowly parted her with her whole hand, pressing all of her fingertips up against Hanamaru's most sensitive spot. After just one, two, three short teasing presses against her G-spot, she gushed onto Yohane's hand, sweating and grinding on the toy and shouting her name, “Yohane – Yohane!!!”, shivering from exertion and pleasure and overwhelming arousal.

Zuramaru fell forward onto the bed. Yohane hugged her, cursing her own sweetness for getting in the way of her persona. “You did well, sacrifice. The tentacles are pleased with your offering... for now.”

“... And as for _you_. We can't forget you, now, can we?”

Ruby had been lost in her own little world, grinding against the silicone toy, peeking from behind her hair to watch her girlfriend get fingered and deriving intense pleasure from it. She hid herself as best as she could – but she needed some attention now.

She mustered up the courage to crawl toward the cruel Yohane, her eyes gleaming with need, her hands almost too shaky to keep rubbing the toy around her cock. “Can you touch me like you did earlier? P-please?”

The cultist appraised her, carelessly groping her chest, licking her lips. “A-aah! Please? Please!?”

Yohane teased the fingers of her other hand – the one that had just been inside of Hanamaru – up her thigh. Ruby squeaked softly and stood on her knees as she tried to grind her hips against thin air, feeling her girlfriend's slick on her. Her head spun from Hanamaru's scent. She dropped the toy as her limbs went slack. Yohane didn't pick it up – it was easy to get yourself started with that one, but not so easy to finish.

“You're so cute and desperate.”

Ruby squeezed her eyes shut and stifled a yelp.

The cultist's slick fingers met with Ruby's soft balls and that made her quiet down right away. Yohane gently hooked her fingers behind them, pulling them forward, massaging them. Ruby started to leak precum as Yohane firmly groped her flat chest, appreciating the subtle development there.

“I love finding cute girls to feed to my breeding pool of tentacles...”

“Th-thank-you Yohane-sama!”

The eldritch girl pressed up into her, tracing her pressure along the deeper part of Ruby's shaft, pressing into her urethra and her groin. She ground her knuckles in – once, twice, three times, slower and slower each time, and Ruby spurted the last of her precum as she cried out uncontrollably – “Aah, Yohane! Yohaneee!!” - all her inhibitions gone.

“Aah, I wish I could drink it all up~”

Yohane finally traced her fingers up her shaft, earning more throbbing from Ruby's cock and more sweet nectar. She followed through by finally grasping around her head and teasing her mercilessly, pulling back her foreskin, slippery precum coating her and overwhelming her senses completely. Ruby came against Yohane's fingers, breathless, pushing her hips as far forward as they could go, spurting all over the cultist's hand.

She fell backward onto the bed, dazed, speechless. She stared at the ceiling as her chest heaved to take in enough air. Her eyes were glossed over, and her hips were still jerking a little bit as her cum made a little pool in her treasure trail. Zuramaru slithered over to her, still recovering, and hugged her tight. The two girls kissed sweetly, their lips locking just briefly as they teased one another. They were still in a reverie, staring into one another's eyes, dozing off.

“Y-Yohane-sama...”

“Yoshiko... Thank you for playing with us...”

“Ruby...”

“Hanamaru...”

Yohane hummed to herself. “You've done quite nicely, sacrifices.”

In another brief moment of sweetness (when did she get this soft? curse them!), Yohane tucked her favorite blanket on top of the sleepy girls and shoved a pillow under their heads. They looked positively angelic with their faces peaceful and satisfied. She let them rest and got to work.

*   *   *

Five hours later, Yohane snapped out of it.

“ _What the hell are these two doing in my bed_?“ she whispered to herself.

Immediately after tucking the girls in, she had unlocked her tablet. With furious speed and frenzied excitement, she started outlining and sketching the second chapter for the doujin she was already writing, tapping away. She wasn't even done with the first chapter but this material was way too good to pass up. She used the two girls as models for chapter two's characters, a pair of lovers lost in the wilderness near the hermit girl's tentacle lair.

True to her role as an artist and woman of craft, Yohane had memorized every detail of her model's bodies – from the way Hanamaru's perfect collarbone caught the light, to the subtle curve of Ruby's hips and butt.

Naturally, she had entirely forgotten to get off in her frenzy to sketch her new material. Yet another boner, lost to the formless aeons, adrift beyond time itself.

And that's how five hours passed.

By the time she finally come out of her state, she had totally forgotten that she had just dommed the fuck out of her oldest friend and her girlfriend. As a consequence, she had also forgotten that they were sleeping naked in her bed. As a result - she sat there, befuddled, for several minutes until she finally remembered everything she had done.

Yohane darted off to her bathroom to regroup.

Her face was a mixture of panic and smiling and sweaty nerves and lewdness. She looked herself in the eye in the mirror.

“Oh my god what the. Hell. Did I just do. Was that real?”

She cleared her throat, quieted down, and stealthily poked her head out of the doorway. The light made Ruby wince, and she pulled the covers over her head. Hanamaru slid closer to her, squeezing her. A toy rolled from the bed, bouncing on the hard floor.

“Okay, that was real, and I just fucked them.”

She did one more double take - yep, still there.

“Okay. Yeah. H-hahaha... I guess I'm a sex goddess _or something_...? Yeah, you're just that good, Tsushima Yoshiko. You can get all the girls with your tentacles.”

She paused. “Apparently.”

Well, this was certainly a lot to take in.

She breathed as best as she could, got some water, ate a quick snack, and gently nestled back down into the bed. There would maybe be repercussions for this but right now she felt pretty good. Her tablet read 3:37 AM and she figured it was time to do the responsible thing and get some sleep – and try to make it to her early classes tomorrow.

She definitely had to stop ditching class just because of a little embarrassing moment; maybe Hanamaru and Ruby could help her. If she was normal enough to get girls, maybe she was normal enough to attend classes after all.

She breathed deeply and calmed herself down for sleep.

As Yohane snuggled in next to the couple, she suddenly felt ill at ease.

Normal.

There it was again, that damned word cropping up where it was least expected and when it was least needed. She felt frazzled, her mood unexpectedly sour as she drifted off to sleep, partly irritated, partly disappointed, and surprisingly tired.

Maybe someday she could stop being a normal girl. Maybe someday she could finally become the monster girl she always knew she was, deep down – free of inhibitions, free of her stagnant mortal form, free of every structure, every rule, every expectation, every law – natural or man-made – that could ever hold her back.

Maybe someday.

For now, having cute girls in her bed would have to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to quote yohane - "I know what is best in life: to breed the tentacles; see them slither into you; and to hear the moaning of your gfs"
> 
> hope you liked this chapter - just the faintest taste of the crazy shit that is still to come. is yohane my self-insert? yes, but not nearly as much as you'd think. the big similarities are 1) monster girl, 2) forgets to get off after domme'ing cute girls (lol sad)
> 
> next chapter will take extra time to finish as I have Some Work Bullshit coming up, but rest assured, my lovelies... we're finally getting AQOURS together for their first meeting


	5. “I just want to express my feelings properly.”

“Attention, attention! I call this meeting to order!”

“Uh, Chika, where did you get a gavel?”

Sooner than anyone could believe it, the first meeting of Aqours began.

Chika had managed to scrape together a convincing club proposal, and she got You to read it before the student council on account of her own nerves (and because of You's clout as the rising star of the swim team). Dia maintained a respectful silence and abstained her vote, but she clearly wasn't happy about it. Chika felt a bit worried that she would obstruct them later, but they were safe for now.

So they got a neglected and dusty club space, tucked away in the top corner of the student center, and a minimal budget. But the leftovers from the previous club were significant. They had enough funds for quite a few “research” trips and materials. And a week later – after a few more formalities and recruiting and cleaning up the room – they held their first meeting late on a bitterly cold Thursday afternoon after classes.

It was beyond unseasonably cold today. Streamers of icy white cumulus trailed off the bay in the wrong direction from usual, cresting on the short hills like a breaking wave. The air beneath them was streaked with snow showers. The wind was coming in hard and not slowing down. The high cirrus canopy of winter above it all still grayed out the world, but tiny streaks of orange and gold and blue wove in and out of view, flutters of color promising warmer weather soon. But right now, there was a bit of a storm brewing.

From up here at the top of the building, on a spit of land overlooking the bay and ocean, the view was surprisingly inspiring for an ocean-themed club. The water was all around them!

“Please don't do that again, uh... 'Miss President',” You snickered.

Chika banged the gavel again and frowned. “Objection! I'm only the standing president until we elect one. Also, I used the club budget to get this, so I expect you all to fight over it when we hold an election!”

Riko slid back in her chair, making a face. “U-uh...” She liked Chika well enough, and she trusted her a lot already, but she wasn't so confident she could trust her to run the club.

“Does the judge usually file objections?” Hanamaru mused.

Ruby was tucked in a chair behind her. “It's loud...”

A dark laughter filled the room. All of the girls turned towards a shadow in the corner... who was scribbling on her tablet... hiding under a cloak. After a very, very awkward wake-up conversation with Ruby and Hanamaru, Yohane had been convinced to come back to classes – and to join a club.

“Fufu... It seems there is dissent among the governance already, at this early hour... Soon, the emissary of Dagon shall take these unsuspecting mortals for her own...”

Chika stomped over, pulled Yohane's cloak off, and tapped her on the head with the gavel. She yelped. “Hey, cut it out!”

“Yoshiko, are you going to participate zura? We thought you would like this club a lot...” Ruby nodded along with her girlfriend.

“I-I will! I'm just doing something – top secret!” Yohane shouted, clutching her tablet close, flipping her cloak over her head again. “Away with you! The last descendant of Innsmouth commands it!” she shouted, poking her finger against the underside of the cloak.

“Well... I guess I can't force ya.” Chika returned to her seat at the head of the table. She tried to bang the gavel again but You snatched it off of her and bopped it on her boob.

“Hey!”

“I'm getting this back on track! Time for a round of introductions, full steam ahead!”

Chika got on board right away. “Hi! Takami Chika here! I had the idea for the club after my buddy-buddy You got me to go to the aquarium. Not sure what I want to do at school yet...”

She hummed thoughtfully. “I guess let's also say why we joined. Well, the oceans are really – cool, and I wanna learn more about them. My friend Kanan already gave me a few of her old diving manuals! Her family has a dive shop and we can go there when it's warmer!”

Smiles all around. You nodded smartly. “Watanabe You! Nice to meet you!” She saluted, her bicep flexing noticeably.

“I'm on the swim team, so I guess I'm already pretty aquatic. I'm aiming for an athletic medicine program. I decided to join Aqours to support Chika, and I have to admit, her enthusiasm is contagious.”

Chika pouted a bit. “Don't show me up too hard, You... making me look like a dummy.”

She put her hand on the mikan's under the table and Chika giggled cheerily. “I guess what I'm looking to get out of the club is a good diversion, and some practical diving skills.”

The polite Riko piped up, getting in on the fun. “I guess I might as well go next. Sakurauchi Riko. Pleased to meet you all, and-”

She glanced toward the murmuring pile of cloak in the corner... frowned like she was about to scold Yohane for not paying attention, but decided against it and perked up again.

“I'm in the music program. I play piano and viola and I sing a bit. I joined because I find the ocean inspiring...” She muttered the end of the sentence, “and inspiration has been hard to come by lately.”

“Music is nice! You should play for us sometime!” The zura bounced up and down and decided to go next.

”Hi, I'm Kunikida Hanamaru. I'm in social studies and history but I think I'm gonna change soon zura. Exploring is important, I think? I'm here for the... aquariums, I guess?” A round of giggles.

“I lived out in the country for most of my life so this is all pretty new to me zura! And this is Kurosawa Ruby – she's the student council president's sister, but she's shy, so give her some time. Or something.”

Ruby shifted in her chair, smiling a tiny bit. “It's nice to meet you all...”

Chika bowed towards the other redhead. “Please put in a good word for me!”

The smaller girl tilted her head, looking worried. “Are you going to marry Dia? Um, I can speak to my parents, but-”

“N-n-n-nope! No! I didn't mean that I-” Chika stammered out. You slapped her on the back and Riko giggled appreciatively.

“Go for it, Chika!”

“Yeah! Get her!”

“NO!!!”

“BEHOLD MORTALS, FOR IT IS DONE!”

Chika could have sworn Yohane flew up to the ceiling when she leapt to her feet, her cloak billowing around her. The outburst caused Ruby to squeak and half-duck under the table.

Before anyone could scold her for shouting, she had already strode over to the table and posed confidently, sending her tablet spinning right into the center with a dramatic flourish.

“Ooh, what's this, Yoshiko? Your introduction?” Chika said.

“You should probably call her Yohane zura,” Hanamaru whispered, blushing a bit as the tablet reminded her of their misadventure (adventure?) in Yohane's bedroom.

On the screen there was a logo: “AQOURS!!” drawn in bubbly black and white lettering. Yohane's distinctive thick, confident and expressive linework was surrounding it, sketching out a basket star, jellies, and schools of tiny fish. She had even worked her signature in, a cartoon octopus with devil horns. It wasn't very refined, since it was just a doodle, but the girls were all impressed.

“That's really great! Whoa!” Chika spun the tablet around to get a better look. “You made this?”

Yohane scoffed. “Do you doubt my fell hand?”

The little redhead grabbed Yohane's arm. She was beaming. “We should use this on our club posters!”

“Oho? Would you all be my little star-spawn as compensation?” Yohane drawled, lavishing in the attention.

Riko did a double take between Yohane's face and the drawing on the tablet. She opened her mouth to ask something, furrowed her brow, then went mum again. Unlike when she did that earlier, Yohane was not under her cloak and she noticed.

After a few minutes of idle chatter and bonding, Chika dashed back to her seat with a mischievous expression and banged the gavel before You could stop her. “I call this meeting back to order!”

You sighed. “You really like that thing, huh?”

Chika grabbed You's hand and twirled her around, plopping her down on the table. The athlete had a quizzical expression. But, the act got everyone's attention.

The mikan continued, waving her arms: “We gotta do club stuff everyone! Did you notice the presents over in the corner?” She gestured toward some printer paper boxes stacked near the windows. She had put bows on them for effect.

“Those are the materials from the old club! The student council handed 'em over. I haven't looked inside yet so this is a surprise for all of us!”

“It's Christmas zura!” Hanamaru's eyes were sparkling. Ruby was beside her, clutching her hands to her chest, bouncing with excitement.

“That was a few months ago,” You giggled.

Just then, a single fat snowflake brushed along the windowpane, sticking to the glass and melting into a glinting drop of water blown by the wind. The storm was starting to pick up outside.

Riko gasped. “It really is Christmas...” She clasped her hands together.

The other girls tittered and Riko made a flustered sound, covering her face. “What? I just... I really like Christmas!”

Chika wiggled over to her. She pulled Riko's hands away from her face and gave her a toothy grin. “Don't worry, we weren't making fun of you!”

She glanced toward the window where a few more stray flakes were glancing past the panes. The air above the school was turning hazy with flurries, illuminated by sideways rays from the late afternoon sun peeking through the clouds. The wind whispered through cracks in the windows, and it whipped the school flag around.

“Let's have at it, shall we? Full speed ahead!”

The girls clustered around the boxes, hauling them up onto the desks. They dug in, unearthing piles of books about the ocean – conservancy, photo books, biographies. They found quite a few things they were hard-pressed to explain, like a bunch of old notebooks, philosophy and technology volumes, and even a copy of Cosmos.

“There sure is a lot of weird stuff in here, huh?” Chika lamented, peeking over her shoulder at the weather outside. It was picking up.

“They seem to have been kind of eccentric,” You proposed, kicking back in her chair and whistling.

“They were all over the place,” Yohane muttered. A few of the others nodded.

Riko lifted a frame out of the box, gasping. She exclaimed, ”Ooh!! Come look!”

Yohane got there first. Her eyes lit up and she couldn't help but gasp as she realized she recognized the object. “Are these... original printing plates by...”

“...Ernst Haeckel!?” Yohane and Riko exclaimed in unison.

“Where have you seen...”

“How do you know about...”

Hanamaru interrupted with an excited squeal of laughter. “Hahaha, wow it's so colorful! Yohane, it reminds me of your-”

The eldritch girl cleared her throat loudly, wrestling her hand in front of Hanamaru's mouth to stifle her. “What she means is. Um, the guy who drew this, he was an artist and naturalist. And nothing weird.” She scowled at Zuramaru as she released her and the brunette laughed nervously.

Then Yohane kicked a foot out and knelt dramatically. “And he is one of my great forebears in art! A visionary of the grotesque and abnormal!”

Chika and You looked it over. “It's not really very grotesque,” the mikan concluded.

“It's pretty cool! A big jellyfish?” A dowel fell out of the frame You was holding and the plates suddenly slipped apart in You's hands. She almost fumbled them. ”Oh! It's a bunch of separate plates I think?”

“That is for each color of ink. A rainbow of terror!” Yohane pointed an accusatory finger at You and proclaimed, ”And if you drop them, the color out of space will descend upon you... mark my words...”

”This one's got lizards!” Ruby fished another framed plate out of the box, regarding it fondly. “Cute!” she said.

Riko hung back from the group. She was squinting, alternating her glances at the tablet and at the plates. Then the wind suddenly started howling through a gap at the edge of the windowsill and it made her jump in surprise, shivering.

Chika took notice and giggled, strolling over to warm Riko up. She and broke up the hustle and bustle of the girls with a proposal: “Why don't we go get some snacks before we start sorting this all out? We don't wanna get stuck in here without provisions!”

*   *   *

Of course there was no objection to cheap convenience store food. After everyone scrambled to get their coats on, they all dashed down to the entrance.

Hanamaru and Ruby trotted outside cheerily, but were rebuffed immediately by the icy wind. The girls fled for the shelter of the building. They sandwiched themselves into the space between the inner and outer doors with the rest of them.

“Ooh! Whah? It's April! What's going on?” Hanamaru pouted.

Ruby huffed and fluffed her girlfriend's shoulders to warm her up. “You can do it, Hanamaru! Forge ahead!” But the brunette just shook her head.

You frowned, scratching at her ear. “I would drive us to the store, but my car's in the shop...”

“The bus?” Chika proposed. “Nah, it would take way too long! Is the student center cafe still open?”

The swimmer formed a wry grin. “You really want to get a soggy grilled cheese or some garbage fried chicken?”

“Uhuhuhu... the sleeping titan is forced to make her move at last... The scion of Cthulhu shall elect one _sacrifice_ to board her starship.” With a flourish, Yohane gestured toward a purple two-seater economy car, alone, near the back of the student parking. “Battle for my favor, mortals.”

Chika and You instantly hunkered down for rock paper scissors. Hanamaru poked Yohane and asked, “If Ruby sits on my lap can we both come with you zura? Or she could sit on your lap if you want.”

“H-Hanamaru!!” Ruby shivered with fear.

Yohane approached them and looked right into Ruby's eyes. She whispered, “Oho~? You act so coy now, but surely you haven't forgotten-”

A squeal of tires interrupted the nonsense that was in progress.

A dark gray sportscar screamed up the school entrance and whipped around the curve into the upper lot, blazing along at unbelievable speed. The vehicle came to a halt right in front of the door the girls stood at. Then the driver honked and waved at them.

The girls glanced at each other, then cautiously stepped out of the doors, braving the elements to see what the heck this was about.

“ _Ciaooo~!_ ”

A blonde girl slid around from the driver side. She perched her chin on her hands on the hood of the car and giggled. She wore a stylish navy pea coat, matching driving gloves, sunglasses, and a red and white checked muffler.

“Your ride is here, ladies!” Her aspect was somewhere between smug, satisfied, and alluring. Like a cat, but gay.

Ruby swooned and Hanamaru caught her. “B-being around all these pretty girls is going to kill me...” she whispered.

Her girlfriend massaged her cheek, standing her back up. “You're so sensitive zura! Hey, um, it's been a while?”

“Oh! It's my favorite _pretty bomber head_ and her _ragazza!_ ” the blonde cried out, dashing to the group to fawn over Ruby, petting her hair. The redhead made a very undignified noise, her cheeks once again reaching that legendary red hue.

“Ooh, you'd better watch out, miss!” Chika guffawed, covering her mouth. “If the student council president sees you doing that to her sister, she's gonna kill ya!”

“How _pericoloso!_ ” the newcomer shouted, cupping her cheeks. “But it's _OK!_ I know these two. Call me Mari Ohara, _bella,_ ” she added with another wink.

Chika averted her eyes and laughed shyly, knowing enough Italian and enough lesbians to infer that she was being hit on. Actually, it kind of seemed like they were all being hit on at the same time.

“I haven't seen you around, I think?” You questioned.

“Oh!” Mari clapped her hands, then went back to fluffing Ruby's hair, taking turns with Hanamaru. The girls waited a moment as Mari was apparently pretty busy petting Ruby, who was looking increasingly relaxed. Hanamaru stood by patiently, laughing to herself, but Mari pulled her over to assist in the head pats.

“I know Dia and Ruby from last year when I went to school here, and Hanamaru by extension. I was in Aqours with a few other juniors...” She trailed off mysteriously, leaving You hanging on her words.

“Mari is overwhelming,” Ruby giggled, having adjusted to the contact – she wasn't flustered for a change. “You haven't been around for so long, Mari! I missed you!”

“ _Charming!_ ” Mari replied, beaming.

Yohane certainly had some choice words a-brewing for the newcomer. “Ugh, I was looking so cool back there...”

Composing herself, she confronted Mari. “Just who do you think you are to show off like that on school grounds, mortal?”

“I own the school,” Mari said without a moment's delay, the catlike smile never leaving her face.

The eldritch girl recoiled cartoonishly, stammering. “I-I see I have been outmaneuvered... um...”

“You own the school?” Chika and You asked in unison.

“Surprised?” Mari smiled kindly, running her fingers through her own hair. “I've got big plans for this place! And I might join your Aqours again, if you make it worth my time!”

“Aah!! We would love to have you!” Chika chirped out, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

”Oh~ _Vuoi ballare con me?_ ” She deposited Ruby in Zuramaru's arms and offered a hand to each of Chika and You, who took them with confused expressions. She spun them around and hugged them both up, depositing them in front of the open passenger-side doors of her vehicle.

“Let's go get your snacks, shall we?” She adjusted her scarf and slid back around to the driver's side, tracing a finger along the spotless hood of the car.

Yohane pouted, her thunder completely stolen. She huffed and headed off to her own car, determined to have _no fun whatsoever_ and drive there on her own. As she strolled away she heard Hanamaru ask lightly, “How did you know we were going to get food, Mari?”, but she didn't think much of it.

The eldritch girl flicked down the stairs into the commuter lot, the brickwork scratching at her cloak, but she stopped when she heard a halting sound – the voice of a person behind her. She looked back up the stairs to see Riko standing alone, her hands clasped formally.

“Um, can I come with you, Yohane?”

Well, Riko had been staring at her weirdly and acting all off and stuff, but Yohane would never say no to having a girl along with her. Thunder slightly reclaimed. She made a fist under her cloak and hissed out a “nice” as she bowed toward the polite girl.

“You have won my favor, mortal. Follow.”

She waited for the musician and the pair strolled across the lot at a more leisurely pace, side-by-side, keeping some distance between one another. Their footsteps echoed against the buildings. The flurries in the air clung to Yohane's wool cloak, sticking and melting to the carelessly scuffed fabric. The rays of the setting sun lit up the undersides of the low, fluffy clouds and the air practically glowed from the light hitting so much falling snow. The world was orange creamsicle.

The spawn of Cthulhu looked over at her companion, but Riko still had an air of nervousness about her as she walked, tense and stiff under her polite demeanor. It was making Yohane feel vulnerable to see someone acting like this. She considered asking Riko what was wrong, but she didn't know her very well.

Also. How did the girl manage to look this dapper in a simple button-up coat? She tucked a stray hair behind her ear with a curled hand and Yohane couldn't help but watch the effortless motion in her peripheral vision.

beep beep!

  
click clunk

  
scrscreek

  
thud .    thud.

Yohane buckled in and stuck her keys in the ignition as Riko fiddled with her seatbelt. Right as the car revved up, the musician suddenly spoke up.

“Yohane.”

“Hmm~?”

“Are you from Innsmouth Night Cruise?” Riko paused, then pressed her, “You go by Pickton Upman-san, right?” She looked at Yohane expectantly, facing her with her whole body in the seat.

A flare of panic flitted up Yohane's spine. Her mouth went dry. That was her doujin circle and her pen name, all right. Had she really been found out by three people in the span of a week after evading recognition for this long? Was she about to be blackmailed?

She took a quick second to reason this out. Riko knew who she was – maybe. They certainly had similar interests, at least as far as marine biology went. Incredibly niche marine biology...

Riko spoke like a Tokyo girl, so it was really doubtful that they had gone to school together (thank father Dagon for that). Maybe she had met her at Comiket. Riko also seemed uncomfortable, but why? Did she like her work, or find it abhorrent? Probably not the latter, or she wouldn't be in this car.

Yeah, she was probably a... customer? A fan, even? Maybe a stalker. That would be something.

“Maybe I am,” Yohane said, dropping her persona for a moment. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason! No reason...” Riko quailed immediately, casting her eyes down.

But Yohane pressed her. “No, you definitely asked for a reason, and you're obviously about to cry or something weird like that.” She held steady at a stop sign, turning to the other girl. “What's wrong?”

“Please - “ she shook her head - “please come with me when we get back to Ura Girls'. I have something I want to show you. Er, just,...”

Something yanked in Yohane's chest as she watched Riko force herself to explain. She seemed so insecure.

“I just want to express my feelings properly. That's all.”

“Okay, don't worry, I get it. I'll come with you to see whatever this is,” Yohane offered soberly.

“You will?”

”For now, you need to breathe, my little star-spawn. You're getting really worked up.” She cautiously stroked the girl's cheek, then put her hand on her shoulder.

Riko nodded. “Sorry. It's just something really important to me. I think you'll like it...”

She pressed her own hand on top of Yohane's. It was warm, very warm. Another thump in Yohane's chest. She wasn't really sure what that meant, but her face was heating up for some reason.

The girls cruised on quietly after that, Yohane idly tracking through the radio stations, too lost in speculation to put music on from her phone.

“So you've read my works?”

“Maybe...”

“Each one is a proclamation from the blind Azathoth, beyond time and space. You should heed their cryptic warnings!”

“Warnings? If you mean the Comiket extras, I have them.”

She must have met her at Comiket after all. Clearly she was a big fan. “All of them?”

“Yeah. Actually, I have a copy of everything, um...” Riko fiddled with her coat cuffs as Yohane's face heated up.

“Even the early stuff?”

“ESPECIALLY the early stuff!”

Suppressing her ego, she simply said, “Thank you.” So Riko was her biggest fan. Got it.

“But don't tell anyone I like this sort of thing!” Riko scolded her, fiddling with her cuffs so hard Yohane thought they might start to fray.

She was about to mention Ruby and Hanamaru's budding interests, but she figured she'd let that conversation happen when it happened. And, knowing how her life had been panning out lately, it would most assuredly happen.

Yohane hummed. She felt a little guilty about making this conversation all about herself. “What about your music, little star-spawn?”

“Pardon?” It was as though Yohane had spoken in tongues.

“You said you play piano and viola. Are you an Erich Zann to my Pickton Upman?”

“Oh, um, I've played a while. There's not much to say about me. I'm plain.” Riko smiled sadly and Yohane was completely certain that she was not telling the truth.

*   *   *

They arrived at the convenience store a minute later, where the other girls had already gotten their snacks.

“Welcome!” Ruby giggled sweetly, giving a curtsy. “Mari's a really fast driver.”

“Where'd she go anyway zura? She disappeared right away.” Hanamaru sighed. “What an odd lady...”

“I saw her car when we walked in though.” Riko warmed her hands as she got in line behind a few other customers to place an order. It was mostly Ura students at the store.

The girls paid for their snacks, waited a few minutes and Mari STILL hadn't shown up, so they all piled into the side room with tables and started munching.

“I see your patron has abandoned you in your time of need,” Yohane uttered, wearing a smug expression as she snuck nachos into her face behind a dramatically posed hand.

Chika tried to keep her from shouting in public and acting like chuuni trash. “It's a pain, but she's probably just been in the bathroom.”

“For twenty minutes?” Ruby frowned, idly feeding her girlfriend a mozzarella stick while munching on one herself. “She must have gotten sick. I hope she's okay...”

“I don't wanna walk all the way back in the cold,” Hanamaru whined. “Ruby! Warm me with your body!”

“E-eh?? You're the warmer one, Hanamaru!!” The redhead stood and sat down on Hanamaru's lap, pushing down onto her girlfriend with her butt and wiggling. They jostled the convenience store table and it wobbled unsteadily on three legs.

Riko took a sip of her iced coffee. She seemed a tiny bit more confident after getting out her thoughts to Yohane. The pair sat together. “Well, Yohane's car is pretty small, but maybe if we take two trips?”

“NAY!” was her instantaneous response. ”These mortals have betrayed me by siding with the interloper! That scheming Mari must be an avatar of Nyarlathotep...”

“Sounds Egyptian,” You muttered through a bite of her sandwich as she scarfed it down, then slurped up a third of her shake in one go.

Chika leaned over and took a bite of You's sandwich as well, humming appreciatively. “Hey, this is pretty good. What's on it?”

The swimmer was speechless. She stammered for a second, but shook her head, laughing it off. Chika tilted her head.

“ _Shiny~~!_ ”

Suddenly, Mari appeared out of nowhere to glomp Chika in the most embarrassing way imaginable: wrapped partway around the chair, half sitting in her lap. It was laughably undignified for someone as wealthy as her.

The mikan was horrified to think of what Dia would do if she saw the owner of their school acting this way. She probably wouldn't wake up from her coma for years! But Chika was far too flustered to ask her to stop.

You cleared her throat and sat up straight to try and ask politely. “Um, miss Mari? Where were you? Do you think we could head back up to the school soon?”

The eccentric girl faked a swoon, falling into Chika's lap and looking upside-down at You. “Oh! Bellisimo! How dreamy! How suave!”

You giggled. “Hey, if you insist.” She saluted smartly and Mari wiped her brow theatrically, cooling herself off with one hand.

“Let's get going~!”

She never did reveal where the hell she had been.

*   *   *

When the Yohanemobile pulled back in at school, Riko was the first to disembark. She started to hurry toward campus, but spun around to wait for Yohane.

“You're excited, aren't you?” She squinted at Riko.

The other girl just smiled and beckoned her along with her hand. Excited indeed.

“What a mood swing...” Yohane said, quite a bit behind.

They trotted up the stairs and hooked a left at the student center, dodging the rest of the girls to have their rendezvous. They entered the music and arts building. Riko was humming loudly.

“Are you going to sing for me, little star-spawn?”

“Not exactly – don't spoil the moment, would you?” Riko shushed her.

They tromped through the hallways to the practice rooms facing the bay, with big panes of glass giving the rooms a lot of light and open air. Nobody else was around. Riko picked out a room, and they found themselves in front of a plain-looking piano.

“Okay, give me a minute here,” Riko grunted as she took off her gloves and coat. She left her scarf on, clutching it for a second for comfort as she sat down at the bench. Then she flexed her hands, warming them up under her thighs then rubbing them together in front of her.

Yohane nodded, popping open her third ramune bottle of the evening. She waited appreciatively, kind of glad to be able to share time with a fellow artist for a change instead of all these normies. (could she even call most of them that anymore?)

And she was still pretty sure Riko wasn't telling the truth when she said she was nothing special.

“Oh – shoot, can you put your drink outside? Grab my coffee too,” the musician said, pointing at the beverage.

“Really?” Yohane scoffed.

“Yes, really. They ask us to keep the practice rooms nice for everyone, and that includes no food. No spills.”

“What a proper girl you are, huh?” The daughter of Innsmouth added, ”Fine, fine~” and set the drinks outside before Riko could give her another reason. Then she plopped down on her cloak, piling it under her as a cushion.

“Thanks,” Riko smiled.

The girls got comfortable in the just-a-bit-awkward silence. Yohane alternated her glance between Riko and the slowly darkening sky outside. The underbellies of the low snow clouds had gone from orange to burning fuschia in the evening sun. Their soft glow made Riko's hair color look deeply mauve and the corner of her eye caught a bit of the light, golden. She sat ramrod straight, then took in a deep breath and centered herself, rolling and popping her shoulders, relieving the tension in her posture.

Then the pianist caught Yohane's glance and the corners of her mouth curled upward shyly. Yohane cast her eyes down, not wanting to weird her out, but also embarrassed at having been caught. She couldn't help if if Riko was nice to look at! It was only natural to want to watch her!

Why was she thinking that?

She couldn't help but feel rather vulnerable right now, but she didn't try to push it away. It was her responsibility to Riko to see this through and listen to her music. Especially after the eldritch girl had talked about herself so much in the car...

The other girl cleared her throat. “Well, Pickton Upman-san... I was going to work on this a bit more and send it to the email you put in the back of your doujins. But since you're here now, here goes...”

Riko placed her hands daintily on the keys, closed her eyes, and held steady for a second. Then she moved her hands effortlessly, glittering forth the first few notes of the song.

It was a refined version of the strange, melancholy tune that had finally come to her mind out there in the ocean. Single notes quivered in the air, like the piano was singing out in Riko's own voice. It was like the music was waiting for something.

Then the melody broke down, crashing into waves of galloping and jaunty notes like a fiddle player in a tavern. It might have been played on Riko's viola in another time. Yohane closed her eyes and let her imagination go -

The music was a bit frantic and she caught hints of playfulness underneath it. The first image that came to mind was pirates sailing the seas, but she dispelled it in favor of a fish swimming upstream. Maybe salmon on their migration.

The salmon bounded up short waterfalls with desperate speed, slickly evading predators and rocks, darting along toward its final destination. A second one followed just behind in her mind's eye, in excited pursuit.

The pair circled each other as they swam, one pulling ahead for a moment, the other overtaking. They were together in spite of their struggle against nature, and against time.

The song sped, and sped further. Yohane felt herself lay down on the floor but she was too engrossed following the melody to care where the hell her body was right now.

Water crashed around them, air bubbles tickling along their sides, clouding the view. Silt and sand swirled beneath, just barely clear. Riko's song started to reach it's climax, speeding up, becoming frenzied and wild and totally unrestrained now. Animalistic.

“Yohane,” she whispered as she played. The eldritch girl didn't hear her at first, too overwhelmed by the intensity of the music.

They darted! They flew! They were almost there!

“I wrote this for you, Yohane.” The player struck a resonating chord, her arms practically flying over the keys, slender fingers barely reaching the notes in time. Sweat glistened on her brow.

”I've loved your work for so long, Yohane... I wanted to express myself clearly -” a crash! Riko leaned hard into the keyboard, curled over it with her body, drumming out a deep chord over and over.

Yohane was sitting up again now, enraptured by Riko's physical performance. Her heart was doing something really weird – speeding up to the performance, speeding up in time with Riko's own intensity. Fluttering. She was totally caught up in the pace. She felt her own breathing speed up too.

“You've made this strange girl very – very happy,” she said, speaking as loudly as she could through the exertion. The melody traveled in different directions, straying from itself, breaking down, breaking pace and coming back to settle around itself. It came to rest in a satisfied pool of sound and water at the end of the journey.

“I love you, Yohane.” Riko let the last note loose, then she threw herself back away from the piano. She tossed her chin up, her hair flipping away from her face almost like she was emerging from the water. She panted heavily, staring at the ceiling for a moment, then looking at Yohane.

“I-is this a confession?”

The doujin artist was stunned. Her shields were totally down, all pretenses and airs evaporated in the intensity of the moment. Her breathing was still fast and getting faster. Fire filled her but it felt good.

“When I say that...” Riko panted, “I mean as an artist, I've loved you as an artist for years and you have no idea how much it means to meet you... today has been like looking through a door of dreams... sorry I've been so awkward and-”

“-and maybe I love you as a person, too,” she admitted.

Yohane felt like she just got hit by a bus. She had been caught up in her own self-centered personality growth that she had never considered the feelings of others very much. Everything had always been about the lewd side for her. This was... not something she had ever experienced.

“How the hell can you say you love someone as weird as me? You barely know me!”

“Are you kidding me? You're -” Riko hopped off the bench, kneeling in front of her - “you're really pretty, and you seem really compassionate, I mean I barely knew you and you were asking how I felt and... and you've put your whole heart and soul into your works and I feel like I already _do_ know you, and know you very well...”

Tears started to form in Riko's eyes and she sniffled, but she was smiling. “Sorry, this is just really intense for me... I never thought I would even meet you but here you are! I can touch you, Yohane!”

And she did. She reached out and curled a hand around Yohane's cheek. She tilted her head, smiling and giggling.

Yohane's heart was going to die if she didn't do something right now! This girl was way too pretty and she was emotional and crying, and Yohane was emotional too and she was confused and she just had no idea what was going on right now! This was nothing like with Hanamaru and Ruby, that was just a fling with no real feelings attached, and that kind of thing had maybe happened a few times before at Comiket maybe. This was a confession of love.

She was shaky and her face probably was doing something horribly ugly right now. Her heart kept drumming. She looked into Riko's pretty eyes and she froze - and she just wanted to pet her head right then and there and make her feel good.

Maybe this was right.

“Riko,” Yohane blurted out, putting a hand over the pianist's on her cheek. Her eyes darted all around and her face burned up with Riko this close to her.

“This is a lot to take in, and you are a really intense person and I guess I am too. And maybe let's, um, maybe I should just kiss you and see what happens because I don't know what to say to you r-”

Riko kissed her.

It was a chaste kiss, but it made her burn right up. Riko's eyelids fluttered closed as she pressed her lips into Yohane's, still holding her cheek. Yohane's pulse spiked and she couldn't help but close her own eyes. She move her own hand to the back of Riko's neck, holding her close and pulling her in gradually, reassuringly.

It was a sweet kiss, too. Riko's lips were as honest as she had been. They were really warm, and full, and Riko responded to her little motions. Yohane's pulse spiked again as she pressed their lips tighter, and Riko responded in kind by slowly tightening down on her, pulling her closer with her hand. They both made a little noise of satisfaction at the same time – then Riko and Yohane both giggled, pleased that the other one was feeling so comfortable...

As they pulled away, the tentacle girl tasted coffee and minty chapstick and sweat and wishes and hopes. She tasted Riko on her.

“Sorry,” Riko whispered. “Was that okay?”

“You should know better than to ask that,” Yohane said. “Didn't you feel how I held you?”

Riko started giggling through the tears, which were quickly drying up. Her pupils were pretty dilated in the dim light of the room, but more importantly, they were dilated from their moment of closeness. Her hormones must be going right now, because Yohane's certainly were.

“Your hands seem really strong, Yocchan...”

“Yocchan? Excuse me?” She fake-huffed at her but she couldn't help herself from laughing happily, excitedly. She still had the jitters but this strange fire inside of her felt really nice. She felt warm all over. It must be - love, she concluded.

Riko nodded and looked her right in the eye. “A nickname.”

They shared each other's gaze for a moment and the pianist took Yohane's hand in her own, holding her daintily.

“My fingers might be strong from drawing, but yours are so -” she took one of Riko's hands in her own - “slender, graceful. I'm not as graceful as you.”

“You don't need to be graceful! I fell in love with a girl who's way too old to be a chuuni, I don't care about any of that.”

“Hey now,” Yohane huffed. “I'll have you know, Cthugha has given me full reign over this planet. I shall do as I please with its inhabitants. And you -”

Riko pointed to herself, playing along. “Me?”

“Nobody else is around, mortal! YOU shall become one of my little star-spawns. It is commanded!”

“I'd love to,” she laughed.

“You shall be my Lily,” Yohane uttered. “Which I guess uh – um, I guess that means you have to go on a date with me! This weekend! It is commanded!”

“So it is,” Riko said, tousling Yohane's hair. “I'd love to see where this takes us...”

Yohane scowled at the affront to her super cool hairstyle and her side bun and she petted Riko by way of reply. They shared another moment of quiet as the dim purple of the clouds ebbed away, the sun finally setting. They kissed again, much the same as the first one, neither one quite sure what to do yet – eager but not ready to go any further.

They were too focused on each other to hear something stealthily being dropped into their drinks out in the hallway.

And they were certainly too focused to hear the offender make their escape.

“Shall we return to our compatriots before we fall asleep here?” Yohane proposed, wrestling her cloak out from underneath her.

“What a romantic. But sure, they have to be wondering where we ran off to.” Riko gulped, suddenly feeling very small. ”Oh no, I hope they don't figure out we were doing something like this! What would they say?”

“Probably nothing. I think everyone in the club is pretty gay,” Yohane said through a slurp of her ramune. “They'll get it.”

“Oh. Huh.” Riko didn't question it. She slipped on her coat.

Yohane smacked her lips, scowling in disapproval as she handed Riko her coffee. “Ew, mine got kind of weird in the hallway. I think your latte got into it.”

Riko tucked her hair back behind her ear and finished off her coffee. “Doesn't matter how it tastes as long as it has caffeine in it. I'm really tired from playing and from – that,” she said.

The eldritch girl shrugged and polished her own drink off, depositing the bottle in the trash. “After you, my Lily,” she posed in front of the stairs.

Riko smiled appreciatively. “How chivalrous of you, Yohane – Yocchan.”

Behind the building, something that was feeling very satisfied with itself slipped out of a service door and fled into the woods, sight unseen. Its goal was accomplished.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey buddies, a SURPRISE work trip and extreme work stress really delayed this chapter. but I'm still going. next chapter is about half done and is... this day, but from Mari's perspective. what is she up to? how does she know everything? is she nyarlathotep? find out soon
> 
> in case it wasn't obvious, this is the part where we pivot and dive headlong into the tentacles. it's about to get real fun. buckle up!
> 
> also heres something to give ya a little tease of whats to come...  
> http://sealedbeastnue.tumblr.com/post/167035866255/some-choice-phrases-from-my-design-documents-for


	6. "You're full of questions, uhu~"

Earlier that day, a blonde haired foreigner left her hotel room, making her move.

Mari strolled quietly into the parking garage of her hotel in Numazu, humming to herself. She confidently adjusted her scarf to the perfect angle as the cold wind nipped at her nose. She had picked just the right time of the early afternoon that nobody else would be around.

The half-foreigner skimmed her fingers along the side of her vehicle, hopped in, and donned the well-loved leather driving gloves she stashed in the glove compartment. She revved the engine up. Her hand deftly flicked on the central air and heated seats, swiped her phone to get some music screaming, and nipped the headlights on.

Then she clamped down on the stickshift and zipped out of the garage in seconds flat. No reason to waste time. She merged onto the quiet coastal road towards Uchiura, racing the fast clouds.

From her peaceful smile, almost like the Mona Lisa's, she was the picture of contentment. Mari appeared to have been born with a silver spoon in her mouth, never wanting for anything, a rich girl with the world at her fingertips.

This was mostly not true.

She had been through a lot of life for her young age, and always knew more than she let on as a result. She had seen some very big, very unbelievable things. Unless you knew her well enough to see through her cryptic social facade, it would be hard to guess exactly what she was plotting, She was indeed scheming up some very big plans.

Mari was, in her own way, a researcher looking for girls who were willing to take part in an experiment – she needed researchers and test subjects. Though she wasn't totally sure her plans would work out, she had to try.

Mari slowed down the vehicle just enough to be inconspicuous as she pulled into a certain diving shop. She was reasonably sure the girl running the shop would be taking lunch out back.

“Yoo-hoo!” She sung into the entryway. Diving equipment stared back at her coldly.

“Kanaaa~n! _My lovely!_ ” Her voice rang out behind the shop. Empty chairs have no mouths, and, like the diving equipment, they also ignored her.

“Where could you have gone? I wonder!” Mari huffed, annoyed. She pondered for a minute, sliding her proper winter gloves on. She leaned on a lawn chair near the fire ring and poked at a charcoal with her boot, trying to recall Kanan's favorite hangout spots.

“ _Oh!_ ” There was one obvious place, and she was awfully glad she wore tough boots today.

Mari searched the sparse treeline behind the shop until she found the barely trodden path Kanan had showed her once.

She followed the trail into the woods, her footfalls displacing sandy, rocky soil and mats of rotted leaves. Sparse patches of ice crinkled under her boots like broken glass. She was only able to follow the way because there were faint imprints of a pair of shoes to guide her. Tiny flicks of wet sand and dirt skulked behind the footfalls, and because they hadn't dried out yet, Mari knew someone had walked here very recently.

The trail led her through a dry gully, over an immense, porous boulder, and onto a normally inaccessible strip of rocky beach. A few wet flurries danced around her, the cold puffs of ocean fog sliding across her face as stocky waves crashed languidly onto the shore, barely managing to teeter over one another.

If Kanan was out here in this weather during her lunch, she had to have a really good reason. And Mari was pretty sure she knew what that reason was.

Her destination peeped out at her – a narrow fissure in the rock, just big enough for a person and a half to fit through. Sure enough, a winter coat she recognized as Kanan's was hooked on a sturdy-looking tree limb, barely out of sight. Mari hooked her jacket and scarf on the next limb, and she bent down to enter the gently-sloping crevasse. She used her phone for light as she carefully placed her first steps.

The coast between Uchiura and Numazu was riddled with sea caves, this being one of them. Most of the locals didn't know about them. They were simply too inaccessible to be found normally, and too dangerous and useless to bother with unless you were specifically searching for them.

The caves tended to stay marginally warm all year, since the nearby hot springs created a kind of weak greenhouse inside. The spring sources occasionally eroded through the sandy walls, a nasty surprise for the unwary explorer. The walls and floor were slippery with algae and moss and silt, and miniscule crabs and isopods often idled near the seawater.

The sea caves were pretty flat and laid mostly just above the waterline at high tide. Most of the caves terminated in a hidden cove just behind the water's edge. Some of the caves were totally underwater. Some were shaped oddly enough that the ocean water and spring water filled them up pretty high into the hills.

Mari was no geologist, and she would be hard-pressed to explain how the caves had formed. But she certainly knew one thing: out here near the cliffs, you could hide quite a secret.

Like a tentacle monster.

They were very real, it turns out, and there was more than one. They had gradually become the main subject of research for the original Aqours trio, Dia, Kanan, and Mari. And it had been what had driven them apart. It became too extreme for Dia, and Kanan just didn't have the time what with family problems. Mari was the only one left to carry the torch.

And sensing fuel in the newly-reformed Aqours, she had returned to light the fire again. It would start with Kanan and her special friend, and it would hinge on a certain pair of juniors.

Twenty feet down a cascading passage of stone, and around a bend, Kanan was sitting on a sand and gravel beach inside the cave. She was staring out onto the surface of a pool of salty water fed by the ocean and a nearby hot spring. The commingling of waters caused a thin veil of fog to form over the pool. The surface glinted with a few rays of reflected sunlight, entering from the part of the cave that led out to sea. It was dim inside, but not dark. Mari's eyes adjusted quickly.

Mari's old friend was reclining between the serpentine coils of something very thick and very long. This was a monstrously huge tentacle, of course. She was idly eating a sandwich, like sitting in a tentacle's coils was totally normal. The tentacle didn't seem to mind either, bobbing its head-end in time with the lazy stout ripples at the shore.

Mari had to stifle a laugh as she peeked around the corner. It was just like Kanan to look perfectly natural in such a situation.

She had a closer look. Kanan's lower half was in a thick drysuit, her upper half clothed only in a tight bodysuit. She looked kind of like a mechanic from a distance.

When she finished eating, she reached into a bucket at her side, then tossed a big sea bass out over the water. The fish writhed and floundered uselessly as it flew. The tentacle's business end sized up the trajectory for a split second, then darted out to hit its mark, coiling around it and gulping it down in great heaving motions.

The blonde watched patiently for a few minutes. Kanan gradually got into the groove, tossing a fish and petting the tentacle's great flank. “Good girl. You're my friend again, right? You're not still mad at me?”

This was the perfect opportunity to catch her at unawares.

Mari made her move. She quietly knelt to select a decent-sized rock, palmed it, then stepped out and hurled it out over the water like a baseball. On impulse, the tentacle lashed out to grab it, and Kanan let out a startled yelp, whipping her head around. “Who's there- No girl, put it down- !!”

The tentacle gripped the stone firmly in its beak, turned it over, determined that it was not food, and whipped it back at Mari's head with lethal speed before the swimmer could stop it.

But Mari didn't even flinch. Her own pet tentacle darted up around her body and flayed its tendrils out to snap the rock out of the air with a sinewy flick of muscle, effortlessly shattering it against the cave wall and letting out a resounding echo. Her ears rang from the crack of the impact but she ignored it.

“M-Mari?? Is that you? Oh god sorry, she just threw it back without thinking – and – wait, why are you here anyway? How did you find us?”

Kanan sounded half apologetic, half frightened. Frightened of Mari. That was okay. Mari could warm her up again.

The schemer practically slithered over to the swimmer. “ _Ciao~_ not such a nice way to say hello to an old lover, hm~?” Her speech lilted curiously, teasing the other girl. “Throwing a rock at me, what a warm welcome.”

“You threw it first,” she groaned, hiding her face. She obviously wasn't ready for trouble to show up. She rubbed her temples, taking a moment to assess the situation. “Mari, I thought you were off seeing the world. There's no way you're back in town, _stalking me into a cave,_ for an innocent reason.”

“And I know you saw me when I flew over the dive shop last week. You were with those _oh~ so~ pe-tite~_ cuties... I'm so jealous!” She winked. A calculated tease, to get Kanan to drop her guard.

It worked. Kanan half-laughed, half-scoffed, her eyebrows raised. But she didn't deny it.

“You've been keeping her quite well fed I see!” Mari continued. She affectionately stroked her hand along the huge tentacle's scaly surface. It shivered in surprise, then cautiously acquiesced to her touch as it remembered her. “But she isn't so calm, no. Haven't you played with her all winter?”

“How am I supposed to do that?” the swimmer snapped. ”I had a grandfather and a business to take care of.”

“Oh! _Mea culpa,_ I nearly forgot. You never wrote.”

“How am I supposed to write a world traveler?” Before Mari could reply, she added, “Don't say texts.”

“You can't read them? _Oy vey,_ what will we do with you...” She huffed dramatically and sat down gingerly on the coils of tentacle with Kanan. It stroked Mari sort-of-affectionately with its tail. She massaged its massive curves back.

“You write in Italian. And Yiddish, and Spanish, and Hungarian, and pretty much every language. I'm not translating all of that,” Kanan rebuffed her.

Mari shrugged. She had a point.

Kanan continued, “And you're right, I haven't played with her much. This big girl can mostly fend for herself. But I do feel kind of bad leaving her alone for so long. She's a bit pouty.” The swimmer stroked the tentacle along with Mari and it slowly swiveled its head around toward them. “I can't take care of everyone and everything...”

“Well! I understand that much, but then how are you, _mademoiselle?_ ” Mari placed her chin on her hands.

Kanan sat up, surprised at her genuine tone. She leaned back, letting her arms hang over the back of the big tentacle. She breathed deeply and it sounded like the first time she'd relaxed in ages as a weak groan escaped underneath her breath. The tentacle sagged under her weight, shifting to accommodate her on its squishy coils.

“Tired. I was supposed to head back to classes already, but I've been stuck out here for another week. I'm too young for this.”

She muttered under a breath, ”I want my freedom back...”

Mari scooted up to Kanan cautiously, knowing that she still might run away at any second. But she didn't, and Mari smiled her kindest smile and wrapped her in a tight hug. And she meant the gesture sincerely, too.

Gradually she felt the tension start to leave the blue-haired girl's shoulders and Kanan drooped. The great coils of tentacle heaved around them slowly as the tentacle's head swung around to nose against Kanan's face. She gave it a pet on the snout.

“Sorry to tease you, _ma chérie._ ” Mari smiled, pulling away just a bit.

“You're not sorry, that's just what you do.” Kanan rolled her eyes, but she was smiling nonetheless.

“Nobody ever really asks me how I'm doing, anymore. They all just want me to do things. Join clubs, go on dives, how's your family...” Kanan shook her head, dispelling the train of thought. It didn't matter right now.

They sat quietly, listening to the murmur of waves and the trickle of the natural springs echoing in the cave. Mari finally leaned back from the hug but a third arm replaced her two around Kanan – Mari's tentacle. It coiled smoothly around Kanan's arm and the swimmer sized it up. It flayed apart at one end, its smaller tendrils stroking the swimmer's arm gently like fingers.

“I really did miss you, Kanan,” Mari cooed.

Where Kanan's tentacle pet was rough and squamous and massive, Mari's was manageably small and quite smooth. They were both similar in coloration – banded in cream and brown and beige and tan and black, pigments in cascading rows of V's like a textile cowrie shell. Sometimes little frills and fins would come out when they swam, to give them some stability in the water.

The biggest difference between them was that Kanan's was one big overdeveloped tentacle, like a sea monster; Mari's was made of bundles of little tentacles, thousands of them, a colony.

They had never learned enough about them, these strange organisms. That was one of Mari's end goals, incidentally – find out what these things were, explore their lifecycle fully, get others involved in their research. She already knew quite a bit about the lifecycle and how they interacted with humans thanks to the contents of a certain notebook, but she hadn't yet gotten to see it in action. She needed more people for that.

“Yours is really articulate, huh? She's like, actually strong, and fast. And kind of smart.” Kanan held her fingers out, wishing to explore further. Mari wrapped the tendrils of her tentacle between her ex's fingers, entwining in them like she was holding her hand.

“I've had a lot of practice with her!” she sang. “They're easy to talk to if you know how. They can listen to your _desires,_ kind of, you know?”

“Can they?” Kanan laughed.

 _“It's not joke!”_ She huffed at the swimmer.

It was so nice to be around Mari again, and it was making Kanan feel really comfortable for once. Smelling her soft scent in the air was making her remember a lot of the fun times she and Mari had gotten up to together. And Dia too, she couldn't forget Dia. But right now, something was bugging her, something was a bit weird with the... with the tentacle, that was holding her hand.

Something was weird with the tentacle – what an understatement.

“Um, Mari, you're getting me a bit slimy.” The swimmer flushed a bit at the sticky texture, looking away as the tentacle wriggled farther into her grasp. The blonde sported a wide, wide grin. Kanan caught a whiff of something tangy. Musky and a bit sweet. It smelled like sex.

“Where... have you been keeping her, anyway?” she asked with trepidation.

Mari giggled. “You already know the answer, _no?_ ”

“You're not serious.”

“How else would I have snuck her around? Wear her as a _fashionable_ scarf?”

Kanan was frozen with the realization, so Mari braved a little peck on her cheek. She let out an uneasy laugh. She looked like she had seen a ghost.

“You know, my body's become _très intéressant_ since we last spoke, Kanan. It's amazing how much you can fit inside yourself if you change.”

“Change what-?”

The foreigner suddenly straddled Kanan, forcing her down onto the coils of the huge tentacle. Kanan was helpless beneath Mari, her hands pinned beneath Mari's legs before she realized what was happening. Mari lifted up her swing skirt, exposing herself completely to the muscular diver.

Kanan finally took a good, hard look at Mari.

Of the very few properties of the tentacle that Mari had tested, parasitism was one of them. The tentacle was coming out of Mari's body like an appendage, symbiotically living as part of her, poking out around the edge of her delicate lace panties and bulging against them. It seemed accustomed to its home inside of her... it looked almost natural. But there was something else different now that the swimmer looked closely.

The second most obvious change that had come over Mari was her complexion. Her skin was unnaturally perfect now – she no longer had a single blemish. It looked like all of her body hair was gone from her legs, from her pelvis, from her soft belly, and probably everywhere else but her eyebrows and blond hair and stuff, she guessed. But even more than that... The girl underneath her squinted.

Right then, the sun peeked out from behind the clouds and the cave got a few shades brighter, a breath of wind clearing out some of the steamy fog.

Mari's thighs were opalescent, and kind of transparent. She looked scaly, and almost... liquid? Like she was turning into some sort of reptile, or maybe even turning into goo. She was, amusingly enough, _shiny._

Kanan looked at Mari's face and started to ask her “What the hell is going on,” but then she spied something in Mari's eyes too.

There was an inhuman quality to them. Her pupils had changed shape into a many pointed star, like the hole in a cake decorating tip. It was a subtle change in shape, but it was unmistakeable. The glint from the water's surface illuminated bundles of tiny filaments and fibers in her iris, glistening and golden. Even more golden than her eyes normally were.

“What the hell are you? Is that still Mari in there?”

Mari licked her lips. “I'm Mari enough to be thirsty around the _prettiest_ girl in town.”

Kanan rolled her eyes. “Yeah, still Mari all right. You scared the hell out of me for a second! What is all this!”

The foreigner sighed, dreamy. “You know this is always what I wanted, as soon as we found these _wily wigglers~”_

Damn her and her cutesy English. This was really serious! “So it's really part of your body. You would go that far?”

“Don't you remember what we were researching? What my plans were?”

Did she really mean to carry _that plan_ out? The same one they'd failed at? “I-I do remember. And I still think you're a bit crazy for it...”

Kanan would argue further but Mari had literally been presenting in her face for a while now, fully exposed, her tentacle _throbbing._ The blonde was staring at her with bedroom eyes. Monstrous bedroom eyes. It was really hard to resist her allure even after all this time – even after all these drastic changes.

The blue-haired girl tried to wiggle free, overwhelmed by all of this. “Are we about to have a tentacle foursome? Oh my god.”

“Threesome.”

She blinked. “Sorry?”

Mari gave her a cryptic wink.

“Oh. Right. This is going to take some getting used to, fuck Mari how are you still this hot even though you're basically a tentacle monster now?”

Mari laughed. “You said tentacle monster and you're still asking why I'm hot?”

It's true – Mari was still way too alluring. Kanan wanted to touch Mari's thick, built thighs so badly but she was still very much pinned beneath her. Luckily, the leviathan tentacle knew what to do. It flattened its tail out and it reached up and brushed along Mari's thigh, slowly teasing, stroking, feeling up to Mari's own smaller tentacle.

The blonde gasped and steadied herself as it stroked her sensitive and scaly inner thigh, curling up to squeeze her ass, groping at her thick hips. Mari's tendrils groped blindly around Kanan's own huge tentacle. The tendrils were already dripping with thick cum. Mari's cum. It drooled down onto her chest.

“Really? Just from that?” The blue-haired girl was awestruck at the sight above her.

“Mhmm~” Mari purred.

“That's way too lewd...” Kanan was jittery with anticipation. God, she missed this curvy weirdo. And she had to admit, the tentacle was not a wholly unwelcome addition. She imagined it writhing its way inside of her, and she realized she was going to have to wash this drysuit very thoroughly when she got back because they were totally doing this.

”Wow, Mari, your body is so warm...” The swimmer wrestled her hands free from under herself and reached up to touch Mari, then halted suddenly.

“Wait, wow did I know that you were warm before I touched you?”

“You're full of questions, uhu~ If you're so curious why don't you join me in my research this time?”

“Was it the tail - are the tentacles seriously psychic or something?” Kanan wondered, but Mari just stared into her eyes.

Her strange, alien eyes were dripping with lust for Kanan. Her breath was coming out in quick puffs, _steaming_ in the cool air and her lips pouted as she breathed. If the swimmer didn't know better, she would say that the alien girl was in heat.

“Eat me, Kanan,” Mari begged, her voice shuddering.

Oh. Maybe she really was in heat.

Kanan leaned up to kiss Mari's tentacle.

Mari shivered. Her tentacle was practically a second set of genitals, like a big bundle of nerves. It was connected to her body after all, in a very sensitive place... She pulled her skirt up into her teeth, but she didn't bother to take anything else off.

Pleased by Mari's submissive response (FINALLY she had the upper hand on this devilish girl for once!), the swimmer flicked her dark blue hair out of her face and gave the tentacle a cautious lick. It tasted salty and musky and just like Mari. It shivered, throbbing hard.

Mari's sweet place was just out of reach, so Kanan sat up further, taking her small tendrils in one hand and licking up them, curling her lips around them from the side and sliding up and down them. Mari girl moaned and then gasped hard, hunching over as Kanan circled up around the tentacle to lick at her bud. It was much larger than she remembered and abnormally hard – another change. It was delicious and burning hot and Kanan just wanted to suck on it forever, though there wasn't a lot of room to get her face in there.

“You taste so sweet, Mari...” Kanan moaned into her. She tasted even better, fuller than when they used to do this a year ago, but she definitely still tasted like Mari.

She fucked her tongue against her clit harder and Mari whined helplessly, then Kanan threw caution to the winds – she knew the blonde liked it hard but maybe she could handle even more now. She closed down on Mari's bud with her teeth, squeezing and rolling gently. That elicited a gasping scream from the foreigner and she pulled Kanan in hard with her tentacle, wrapping it around the back of her head.

“ _Gentle!..._ but don't stop!... ah! Kanan~!” Her words were muffled by her skirt, which she clenched in her teeth hard.

Mari teased her tentacles against the back of Kanan's ear and the swimmer whimpered into her hot body, sucking at her overdeveloped clit mercilessly. Her sounds were muffled by Mari's belly and groin and her tentacle which seemed to be pulsing in and out of Mari every time Kanan sucked down harder.

The sticky tendrils caressed Kanan's earlobe, pressed against it from beneath, and teased around the entrance to her ear like it was about to enter her head. The slick pressure against her made her falter, her legs weak from stimulation. She backed away, worried about actually biting down on Mari from the surprise.

“You're – almost better with your tentacle than you are with your tongue...” Kanan whispered.

The blonde started to whine, missing the direct stimulation, but Kanan rolled her thumbs up Mari's clit instead, flicking it hard and unevenly through the lubrication. Mari gasped with each flick coming as a surprise. Each one shot pleasure through her scaly thighs, through her core, through her tentacle which relentlessly frotted itself against Kanan's ear. The swimmer teased Mari's tentacle with her tongue just as it teased her.

Mari came breathlessly, gushing forth around the tentacle, drooling down into Kanan's mouth. She graciously licked up the sweet and salty juices from Mari, swallowing as much as she could and pressing into the tentacle with her tongue and teeth to draw out more of the orgasm. It teased her lips and entered her mouth with its skinny tendrils, tasting her right back, and it slid across the back of her neck like a hand gripping her, making Kanan feel very submissive all of a sudden.

“There's so much of it, Mari...”

Mari's scent filled the air, her cum dripped down Kanan's face, and her shining alien eyes gleamed with reflected sunlight as she basked in the afterglow of the blazing hot orgasm that was still echoing through her hybrid body. She grinned through the mouthful of her own skirt, smug and satisfied, her clothing soaked with sweat.

Then Kanan's huge tentacle got in on the action. It wasn't too quick to make decisions because of this cold weather repressing its metabolism, but it wasn't about to miss the fun.

The serpentine tentacle had been stealthily wrapping itself around the two girls' legs for a while, gradually pulling Kanan's drysuit down and getting between her legs, spreading them slowly with its thick girth. It made its presence known by fanning its miniscule fins out, and it teased against their inner thighs with a feather's touch. Both girls whined, straining to escape it but failing.

“Jeez, girl, you've really gotten strong...”

Kanan gasped as she felt her own stickiness clinging to her thighs, her muscles pulling taut involuntarily as the teasing nearly became a tickle. She realized she was totally soaked inside what little diving gear was still on her.

The great tentacle between Kanan's legs rippled down its length, and her strength failed her as it pushed against her core. She clung to it for a moment, grinding her labia against it in short, jerky thrusts, lost and overwhelmed by the moment of pleasure.

It was just long enough of a pause for Mari to become conspiratorial with the big tentacle, kissing it on the snout and licking up its side tenderly, causing it to wiggle and turn toward her.

Mari had recovered splendidly from her orgasm. She flung her clothes off, revealing how far she had been corrupted by her tentacle infestation: glistering scales traced up her sides in clusters and halting rows, and what appeared to be atavistic gills had formed at her sides below her lungs. She was _changing_ fast, but into what? That was anyone's guess.

“Kanan's been a busy girl, hasn't she! And you've been lonely too, miss. Shall we have some fun together?” The big tentacle fluttered its fins, apparently excited at the prospect of playing with its friend.

About half of Mari's dextrous tentacle colony slipped out of her, slithering onto the bigger one. It spread its tendrils out, wrapping around the big one, apparently merging with its flesh. There was a _squish,_ and a _pop,_ and a bit of steam and heat, then just like magic they were one great colony of tentacles. The merged tentacle stretched as it tested out its new body, caressing Mari's cheek effortlessly despite its huge size, flaying out its smaller outer tendrils as Mari's smaller one had. Its inner tentacles were drooling with huge gobs of sticky nectar.

Kanan had dismounted the big tentacle in the meantime and was seated in the sloppy remains of her drysuit, looking needy. She was straightening out her one-piece swimsuit, watching the biological marvels occurring in front of her.

“They can do that?”

Mari blinked. “ _Incredibile..._ I've never seen this before.”

Then she grinned, stroking the tentacle's huge flank and urging it towards Kanan. It whipped its business end around and slithered quickly up to her, flicking gravel out from under its massive body. It spread out its tip, flaying into a few dozen smaller tentacles.

“A-ahh??” Kanan whined helplessly, recoiling in no small amount of surprise as the tentacle got up in her face. It licked a few of its tendrils across her cheek and she giggled, somewhat relieved.

“Sorry, you just spooked me. Did you want to play with me...?” she purred.

The serpentine tentacle's thick inner tendrils pulsed with excitement, the outer ones wrapping around her chest and groping her roughly. Kanan moaned in satisfaction as they writhed under her tight swimsuit's edges, slick bodies teasing all over the sides of her breasts and in her armpits.

The inner tendrils rubbed together, bending down to collect their own slick and lubing themselves up as best as they could. They reached down to her already-wet core and stroked up and down her inner thighs. Kanan's whining just got louder as she thrust her pelvis upward, egging the tentacle on.

“Please... it's been months since we played like this... please!”

“Oh, so you've been doing something this dirty with her, _ma chérie?”_ Mari interjected. She was seated atop the great tentacle looking mighty pleased with herself.

“S-shut up!” Kanan yelped as the tentacles finally, slowly, started to shove their girths up into her swimsuit.

A few tentacles reached each of her nipples and she arched her back as they paired up to squeeze against her areolae from the sides. Kanan was totally helpless to their touch as they jerked back and forth on her nipples, shaky and wound-up, their bodies slipping over each other and tweaking her this way and that. She felt herself twitching down below. Kanan needed it bad.

“Please kiss me...”

“We'd love to, _bella,”_ the blonde whispered as she slid down the tentacle's body, pulling a few of the outer tendrils with her as she dropped.

She wrapped her arms around Kanan and pulled her into a sloppy kiss, teasing her tongue all over Kanan's. The pair of tendrils got in on the fun too, one teasing against Kanan's ear again. The other flayed out into even tinier tendrils and schlicked itself messily against the girls' lips, and both of their faces heated up as the tendrils mingled with their tongues. They were sweet and salty with sticky goo, a mixture of cum and – whatever the tentacles' fluids were.

Kanan couldn't help but lick into them to taste it all up, and they coiled around her tongue and tugged on it gently. At the same time, the ones groping at her thighs stopped messing around and finally shoved themselves up against her in one quick motion. The swimmer let out a moaning breathless sigh as everything came to a head at the same time.

Tentacles shoved themselves up against her folds, grinding on her clit with each pass. Tentacles groped her breasts and so did Mari, tugging and flicking at her nipples under her swimsuit. Mari and the tentacles licked her mouth, licked her neck, nibbled and schlicked against her ears.

Kanan was breathless as she reached up to grab around her partners, holding them tightly as she shivered from pleasure, grinding her core and her chest into the tentacles and into Mari's hands.

Mari's face was flush with hunger and lust as she whispered to Kanan, “Give yourself to us, _my lovely,_ let it all out...”

Mari and the tentacles tugged gently at Kanan's clit and she yelped once – twice – and she came with a long, whining breath, throbbing against her lovers. She clung so tightly to them as her core contracted, her whole body wrapped around one point of pleasure. She rode it out, fucking herself against them until it became too much stimulation to handle and she felt her arms go limp, flopping to the ground. The tentacles and Mari caught her, gently laying her down on her drysuit.

*   *   *

After a few minutes of clinging to her drysuit, blinded and deafened by raging hormones and stimulation, Kanan became aware enough to tell that her head was being petted. Her lovers had covered her with the other half of her drysuit to keep her warm.

She sat up slowly, floppy and satisfied. “Mari... This was so... And you too, girl,” she breathed out, petting the tentacle. It shivered happily, flattening out in relaxation. It looked like Mari's tentacles had already separated from it, as it was back to – well, back to normal.

Mari blinked. “Girl? You didn't ask her name?”

Kanan was about to ask if Mari gave her own tentacle a name, but she guessed that would be weird since it was technically part of her now. “Why would I do that?”

 _“For shame!_ Couldn't you tell how smart they are?”

She admitted that she could.

“They have sapience, Kanan. You should treat her less like a pet and more like an equal,” Mari lectured her as she dried them both of sweat and cum as best as she could.

Then Mari let out a little laugh. “I was kidding about the names, though.”

Kanan punched her arm. “Hey now.”

“So _violent!”_

“Anyway, you should see how Dia's been keeping hers.” Kanan grinned ruefully.

“I can imagine... Oh, _dios mio,_ the poor thing! This callousness is exactly why she didn't understand my research in the first place...”

“For my part,” Kanan grunted as she stood unsteadily, “I don't understand you or your research either. But I respect that you have ideals that you want to stand for, and I think I respect her a lot more too.”

“Speaking of, it was a lot of fun to play with you and Mari,” Kanan said to the tentacle. It popped its tiny fins out and gave her butterfly kisses on the calf. She giggled and gave it a little kiss on the snout-end by way of reply.

When Kanan looked back at Mari, her face was all screwed up and she was nearly in tears.

Kanan rushed over to try and comfort Mari, shocked by her incredibly rare moment of weakness. “Whoa, what did I say? Sorry!”

“It's not that,” the foreigner sniffed. “I'm so glad!...”

“About what?”

“You're not scared of them or me anymore, and you respect us... That's all we want, to tear down all the walls around all of us...”

“You're not making much sense, Mari,” Kanan couldn't help but laugh a little.

Mari frowned and poked her cheek, recovering a bit. “Hush, you. It's hard to explain...”

Kanan warmed Mari's body up with her hands. Mari said, “Communicating between our species – I think that's what they want. I don't know where the tentacles came from, but I think their intentions are pure. By human standards.”

“I've been around them for a long time and I think they just want to share, I guess,” Mari concluded. “To share everything.”

Kanan mulled it over. “Well, you have me curious at least. But I think you operate on a different level than most people, Mari. Either that or I'm just not getting' it,” she laughed uncertainly.

“If you want to know more, will you – help me again, _my lovely?”_

*   *   *

The girls got a quick shower at the diving store and Kanan closed up shop early. She couldn't help but be curious what Mari and her tentacles were planning. They all hopped in her car, and naturally, that included the huge tentacle. It hastily slithered into the backseat of the car, most of its body having to fit into the trunk.

Mari buckled a seatbelt over its girth and it recoiled in what could pass for embarrassment.

The girls of different species sped off into town. By this time it was late afternoon and unseasonable flurries were swirling around the vehicle, a deluge of snow. A curtain of virgo caught the light above the bay, and the inland ones above Uchiura hung dark like gray kelp. The humanoid girls cracked the windows and the cold air made both of them sigh with satisfaction as the last moisture from the shower evaporated off of them. The huge tentacle didn't seem to mind either way.

The tentacled blonde started to blast thrash metal but Kanan quickly turned the volume down, wincing. “Okay, Mari. We're along for the ride, but what exactly are you planning to do?”

“You know the new aquarium club that formed?”

“Yes,” Kanan uttered in displeasure, about to object to involving her kouhais in this.

“Don't shoot me down right away, _mia amata,_ let's let them make their own choice. What I want to do is – introduce spores to a few of the girls and see where they take it.” She produced a little container of grayish gloopy stuff – the tentacles' spores, apparently fertilized by one another during the playtime earlier.

“You mean you're going to knock them up with tentacles,” Kanan said, grimacing.

“So hasty! You and Dia both got them out of your bodies easily, right? Besides, I happen to know there are two girls in the club who would take well to this kind of thing.”

Kanan sighed. “Let me guess. You've been spying on them.”

“One of them is Sakurauchi Riko.”

This gave Kanan pause. She recalled how oddly the auburn-haired girl had behaved during their dive. “Oh. Ooooooh. Okay, she might actually be interested in this.”

“I know you two certainly had fun before... uhu~”

”Is the other girl anything as weird as Ri-”

“Tentacle porn illustrator.”

“-ko... Oh.”

“And if my – let's say research, is correct, Riko has had a _lovely-dovey crush_ on her for years without knowing her personally!”

The swimmer couldn't help laugh at the absurdity of the situation. The big tentacle seated behind her reached up to lick her cheek and she petted her back. “Well... okay, I'll help you this time. But you have to stop spying on them.”

_“Oh no!”_

“You know, you could just show up at the club and talk to them. You don't always have to sneak around to get things done.”

It was Mari's turn to laugh. “But it's so much fun!”

But Mari acquiesced, so the girls formed their plan.

Mari would give Yohane and Riko a convenient chance to go off on their own. Basically whatever it took.

The serpentine tentacle would spike Yohane and Riko's drinks with larvae when they were alone, but without being seen.

Kanan was the scout, and she would keep an eye on everyone's movements. She would alert Mari if she spotted anyone interfering.

Mari dropped her partners in crime off on a gravel service road near the school entrance, leaving the car idling. “Best of luck, _my cosmic lovers!”_

The tentacle nudged Kanan's arm as they approached the main road. “What's up? Oh, I guess we should try to move you in secret...” It offered its flank to her and she grabbed on, getting the idea.

The tentacle shot off, gripping up the side of a tree and flinging itself over the road through the dense branches.

Kanan was shocked at its raw speed and she gripped tight, gritting her teeth and tightly hugging the tentacle with her whole body (thank goodness she had a strong core!), making herself as flat as possible. They whipped through the treetops, the tentacle slithering like a sidewinder and sending twigs cracking in its wake, the swimmer's winter coat snagging at knot-holes and stray flurries stinging her cheeks.

A moment later, they halted abruptly within spying range of Aqours' clubroom. The serpentine tentacle wrapped around Kanan to support her, flattening the rest of its body out to create a sort of treestand for her to watch from.

The blue-haired girl exhaled sharply, her adrenaline still spiking. She was grinning in spite of her fear. “Well. I guess I can see the appeal of Mari's spying... a little. You're so fast!” The tentacle affectionately squished her chest and she giggled.

They settled down just under the upper canopy, hidden in enough shadow and leafy camouflage to hopefully be invisible from the clubroom.

Kanan dialed Mari on her phone. “Okay, we're in position, Mari.”

“Call me _Agent Wigglers!”_

“Um?”

“You two can be _Code Blue,_ and _Naked Snake.”_

Kanan rubbed her forehead with her free hand. “Um, sure, whatever you want Mari.”

She left the call on and leaned forward against the tentacle, straining her eyes and ears to catch a bit of the club's activities. She faintly heard, “It's Christmas zura!” It seemed like this would be good enough.

After about ten minutes of wishing she had a hot pack, Kanan caught wind of the girls' movements again. “Mari, it sounds like they're going to get food. This is probably your chance.”

 _“Roger that!”_ Mari hung up to carry out her plan.

And just a few minutes later, after Mari had left with most of Aqours in tow:

“Shit. Mari, someone's heading for the clubroom. I think it's Dia.”

*   *   *

Mari slipped away from the group at the convenience store, sliding out of view around the side of the building. This was an unwelcome development after a pretty smooth diversion and car ride.

“Where is she?”

“Just came onto the quad. She looks pissed. I think she knows you're up to something.”

“Hang tight, _Naked Snake._ I'll get up there right away and settle this.”

 _“Naked?_ I thought I was _Big Blue?”_

Mari giggled and stashed the phone in her coat pocket. Not wanting to make it obvious that she had abandoned the club members, she elected to go on foot and leave her car as a stand-in. She took off at a sprint into the woods.

One thing that Kanan hadn't noticed: Mari's tentacle symbiosis had granted her utterly monstrous physical strength and stamina, enough that she could pretty easily throw her body weight. She did her best to suppress it. The tentacle girl took a straight line toward the school, tossing herself between the rough tree trunks with her arms, kicking off the thicker ones to keep her momentum up. She got back to the school on foot just about as fast as she had gotten to the convenience store in her car.

Mari burst through the doors of the student center and slowed her breathing, drying herself of sweat. She composed herself and picked up the phone call with Kanan again.

“I assume she's in the clubroom?”

“You guessed it. Hey, I didn't hear your car, how did-”

But Mari had no time to answer that. She'd apologize to Kanan later. She hung up and darted up the stairs, her steps stealthy and controlled.

The tentacle girl quietly slithered up to the clubroom entrance, her ears catching the whispers of rustling paper. That would surely be a certain dark-haired club president.

She couldn't resist making a bit of a spectacle out of this, since Dia's reactions were so much fun... She eased her tentacle out of her body, schlicking its tendrils together to get it nice and drippy. She hid it under her skirt and came around to the doorway.

Dia Kurosawa was in there, carefully poking through a bunch of books stacked on the tables.

“Come on, I know I left it in here...” Dia hissed through gritted teeth. “Oh! Is that it?”

“Need any help?” Mari cooed.

Dia yelped and spun around, her features contorted with fear. A few books tipped over and fell lazily to the floor. She backed into the table with her hands behind her back. She looked like she'd seen a ghost. “Mari! Wh-w-what are you... good afternoon! Evening! Long time no see!”

 _Worth it._ “Good evening. What are you looking for, _my diamond?”_ Mari tried again, approaching her ex.

“Nothing! I was just checking in on my sister's new club!”

“Oh? With nobody else around? Why would you lie to me now, dear?”

“I'm not your dear,” Dia retorted defensively. “Why are you back? And how the hell did you know I was in here?”

Mari gasped melodramatically. _“So rude!_ Answering a question with a question... If you must know, our cute miss Kanan was outside stargazing when she saw a burglar entering the building. And since I own the school, I came by to check it out.”

Dia shivered with fear, knowing she was also being lied to but not having the willpower to challenge the other girl. “O-oh... So Kanan is with you again? What are you plotting?”

“You were looking for the notebook,” Mari said flatly.

“What notebook?”

“The extra special one you pilfered off of _little old me_ after I was so gracious to buy it for all of us!” Mari tutted, shaking her finger. “You really are a burglar, Dia Kurosawa. I thought it had gone missing when we disbanded, but here you are, holding it behind your back, hiding it from me again.”

Dia shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut. She decided to be honest. “I don't know what you would do with something like this, so I hid it with the club effects. I forgot it in here but I certainly don't need those girls finding it.”

“Why ever did you hide it?” Mari glowered at Dia, and the dark-haired girl shrunk from her.

”You're too damn dangerous, Ohara Mari. I don't know what you would do with this information.”

Mari sighed sadly. “Do you even think I need that old thing~? Oh - but really must clean your foul mouth out, _my diamond._ I can't have that kind of language in my school.”

She pushed her tentacle out from under her skirt and it bulged forth, viscous drops of goo dripping onto the floor as she flared it out to its full width. Dia looked on in abject horror as Mari loomed above her, with no mirth whatsoever in her features, her tentacle slowly curling in towards Dia's face...

The wind howled. The lights flickered.

“As punishment for your foul language, shall we let her have at you?”

The student council president fainted, collapsing to the ground in a heap.

Mari scooped Dia up in one arm and pouted, her tentacle slipping back inside her. “I'm not that scary, am I?”

Sure enough, the notebook that had gone missing a year earlier laid wide open on the ground before her. Mari's notebook, that she technically owned. She grabbed it and made her escape, dialing Kanan.

“Hey, _Naked Snake~!_ I took care of miss intruder, I'm going to drop her off at her house~ Proceed with the plan!”

“You didn't hurt her, did you?”

“Of course not. Dia's such a helpless little thing, all bark and no bite. I just had to give her a good scare!”

*   *   *

The rest of the plan went off without a hitch. Mari deposited the fainted Dia at her own house and dashed back to the convenience store as fast as she could; when she got there, it seemed that Yohane and Riko were getting quite friendly with each other. She didn't even need to find a way to get them separated from the others, since they ran off on their own as soon as they got back to the school.

Then the tentacle deposited its freshly fertilized spores in their drinks, Kanan confirmed that it had hit its mark, and everything was all set.

Mari took a breath of the frosty evening air and stretched her limbs, the last flurries daintily floating to the earth. She was so excited to see how her new research subjects would behave...

Ooh. There was one other thing she had to do.

After sending Kanan and her friendtacle on their way, Mari traipsed back up to the clubroom. She found the six Aquatic Research Society members mopping up fluids from the floor. Riko and Yohane looked none the wiser as to the events of the day.

“Hi again, Mari! Looks like the roof was leaking or something, eheheh...” Chika admitted.

 _“Oh no!_ I wonder how that happened?” Mari knew how that happened.

“We were actually just about to finish sorting all the old club materials. What's up?” You asked as the girls pitched their wads of paper towels.

“Actually, I had something _très intéressant_ to let you know about! Gather 'round!”

Everyone sat down at the table, having no idea what was on Mari's mind. She put her hands on her hips at the head of the table and cleared her throat to make a Big Announcement.

“Did you _lovelies_ know that there are scholarships out there for discovering new species?”

The girls collectively gasped. Ruby asked, “Wait, really? Scholarships??” The aquarium club wasn't seeming so pointless all of a sudden.

Hanamaru chirped, “Are you saying what I think you're saying zura?”

“Perhaps~ You all seem to have lots of _po~ten~tial~!_ ” She announced it with cheer, spreading her arms wide above her head.

Yohane nodded sagely at the offer, covering her face with her cloak and grinning wide. Riko replied for the both of them, saying “We'll definitely do our best! Thanks for helping us out, Mari!”

Mari smiled as sweetly as she could. “If you happen to come across anything of interest while you're in Aqours, you should take notes! _You never know~!”_

And with a pair of unwitting research subjects and a team of novice researchers assembled, the experiment began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CURRENT STATUS
> 
>   * Mari: symbiotically living with a tentacle as part of her body. turning scaly and monstrous and weird at an alarming rate. still seems like the same old Mari though...
>   * Riko: has tentacle spores, is gay
>   * Yohane: also has tentacle spores, is also gay
>   * Kanan: ??? (prior exposure, DID just fuck Mari and a bunch of tentacles so...)
>   * Dia: ??? (prior exposure, is occasionally fucking a tentacle)
> 

> 
> super SUPER nsfw chapter this time. we are plunging headfirst into an ocean of interspecies monstergirls who are kind and good and apparently pretty dirty but that's fine hey hey hey...
> 
> Mari's changes are just a teaser of what's to come~


	7. “So, nothing out of the ordinary?”

An eldritch being groaned and flopped face-down on her bed. She didn't even bother to take off her cloak first.

“That's what I get for drinking five bottles of ramune,” Yohane muttered to herself. It might have been more than five, all told... She figured the contents of her belly must have been sloshing with nachos and carbonated sugar water. And the nerves weren't helping either.

She was still riding the exhilaration high from Riko's confession to her, something that had quite literally never happened to her. And on top of that, after they returned to the meeting she had to evade the furtive glances and giggling whispers of the other girls. She was pretty sure they had been found out. God they were all so gay.

Despite all of the drama, the rest of the meeting had gone pretty smoothly. The group had cleaned up their space, hung up the plates they found, and planned their first dive in a week. Chika was obviously elated at her success, and You was relieved as well.

Everyone had a little homework at the end of the meeting. Zuramaru and Ruby were going to do some research on different species, to find reports of unique or unidentified species living in Japan (though Yohane thought she might divert them on a cryptid hunt for kicks – who wouldn't want to find a Tsuchinoko for Tsushima Yoshiko, or a real Mothman or mermaid or something?).

Chika and You were going to see if they could plan any special meetings or events out at the Awashima Marine Park. They would almost certainly swing by Kanan's shop too.

And lastly, Yohane and Riko were going to scout out the locals and find some good beach-combing and diving spots.

After the meeting finished, Yohane snuck off with Riko to plan their first trip – but mostly it was a date that Saturday. They also wanted to make out some more. Riko was a really responsive kisser... It was really nice to be with her. Yohane's bubbly feelings just kept coming.

Back in the now, the star spawn girlfriend from beyond time and space pulled out her phone, rolling onto her side to read her texts from Riko.

 

**Thursday 6:33 PM**

< Hey! :) I hope I got your number right!

**6:40 PM**

snake tiddies >

< Hang on now

tentacle finglies? >

（∈~ ｀▽´ )∈~ >

**6:51 PM**

< Ugh what am I going to do if other people check my phone and see this.

youre stuck with me now lmao >

inform them that they tresspass against your privacy at their own risk as YOHANE lurks always in the shadows >

uhuhuhuhu >

who else would be looking at your phone anyway/? >

also kisses >

**8:02 PM**

**3 Unread Messages**

< Kisses! It feels so good to get to say that...

< It was so good to finally get to meet you, Yohane... And sorry if I came on a bit strong.

< I'm really looking forward to our date!

**8:36 PM**

no way youre super cute and sweet >

were you already thinking about YOHANE.................... >

 

Yohane let the ellipses trail off. She wasn't sure whether it was alright to say something dirty, to tease her Lily already. She abandoned her cloak and boots on the floor, and she tucked under the covers to stay warm as she thought about it. Her stomach sent a shooting pain up her side when she reached to turn her bedside light on. She winced, sucking in air through her teeth. Gotta take something for that later.

Anyway. Their shared interest in tentacle porn was one thing, certainly... and her – girlfriend, it gave her butterflies to say that – wasn't a prude or anything, but should she leap so soon?

Riko's next reply came before she decided.

 

< Um, is that a trick question

< I definitely am thinking about you. I've been thinking about you for at least a year now, you know that ❀

< Aaaaahhhh I can't believe I really met you today!!!

so you admit the eldritch being YOHANE has haunted your dreams? >

I see my psychic emanations have reached youa cross the cosmos >

across*>

< Haunted my dreams? kind of

< I think about you more when... sigh um

< Well you know what ANYONE would do when they read your stuff. this is no secret.

 

Oh she was too cute trying to play it cool Yohane definitely had to tease her a little bit. The eldritch being kicked her feet excitedly, rustling the covers and getting all worked up, thinking of how best to mess with her Riri.

She ignored the flare of pain that clutched at her gut and her hip now. She was BUSY, damn it. Antacids later. Maybe aspirin too.

 

tell me, little star-spawn >

what DO you do when you read the cryptic etchings of the cultists of azathoth?? >

< Okay now you're just trying to make me blush

uhuhuhuhu ψ(^Ф∀Ф^)ψ >

< Excuse me but what the hell is that face

< anyway

< It's fun to uh, to touch myself I guess, when I think of what you draw...

< and I kind of imagine myself being with the girls with tentacles. Sometimes I have also have tentacles... There, I said it!!!

WHERE do you touch yourself, >

OH >

 

Yohane halted herself mid-sentence, her teasing suddenly derailed, her eyes wide. OH indeed.

So Riko imagined herself _as the tentacled girls?_ Not as the human girls interacting with them? This polite, demure girl who nobody would ever suspect of being an irredeemable pervert, was she really that similar to Yohane herself?

Now that she thought about it, though, it explained a lot. The vibe she got from Riko's music made more sense now, and so did its title. Riko had gradually become such a devoted fan, and she would naturally pick up SOME of Yohane's weird fetishes and monster internalization. Or maybe she felt like that all along? She would have to ask Riko when the time was right.

It seemed that Riko also had a genuine curiosity about the ocean, given the story Chika had told about their meeting. Was she really about to dive into the ice cold waters of the bay? It sounded like she had felt _compelled_ to swim.

“She's super weird,” was what Yohane concluded, smiling wide. They would be a good match, she hoped. There were a few messages waiting for her.

 

< You know where I touch myself you goober.

**8:47 PM**

< Hmm? ❀

< You okay, Yohane? Ugh I think I ate something bad today

me toooo, I think the curse of the music practice rooms has come come to roost beneath my carapaace >

I shall cast out this daemon into YOHANE'S realm beyond time >

hey. >

riko. >

< Hey ❀ so serious all of a sudden?

you know. >

now that im thinkin about it its realy hot how you get off to the same things I do ~>

< Uuuuuuuu yohaneee you can't say thaaaat

super. cute. lol... >

id like to see the look on your face when you start to >

touch >

yourself >

< !!!

im imagining YOHANE'S little starspawn riri grinding herself on her pillows helplessly as shes reeeeading>

pretedning she has super strong big tentacles to touh herself with >

touch* >

< For a published author you sure make a lot of typos yocchan

yeah well i proofread it afterwards right now im just trying to get your pants off >

< o_o;;

and suceeding it seems >

no complaints or YOHANE will stop teasing you lilyyyyy >

ψ(* ´ω｀*)ψ uhuhuuu~~~~~~~~~~~~ >

< You move really fast dont you... please don't stop though hhh

prove your loyalty to YOHANE if you want more >

< Okay. I will.

 

Yohane whined quietly to herself as the _Loading Image..._ notification popped up. Riko took a selfie that fast? No hesitation, huh... The eldritch girl wiggled her legs between the sheets, clutching them with her free hand as her other hand propped up the phone on a loose plushie. A flood of warmth washed over her body as the image blinked into view, re-sizing itself to fit the window.

The walls of Riko's room were cutely decorated, but plain. She leaned back on her bed, her eyes half-lidded and her face flush. She was smiling with a hint of desperation in her eyes. She was in black sweatpants and a striped indigo jumper.

Her midriff was exposed and Yohane stared at her soft skin, noticing the glint of something wet on her belly.

“Ooohh...masturbating already, my precious sacrifice?” The eldritch girl suddenly became aware that she was also dripping, sticky and hard, in her own pants, and had been unconsciously grinding her thighs together for a short while in spite of the prodding pain in her side.

Maybe she should reciprocate for Riko. The girl was practically laying her heart bare after all...

Yohane kicked and wrestled her clothes off and slipped into proper sleeping attire for once: a camisole and a pair of shorts printed with little devils and beasties. Her phone buzzed as she tucked back in. Another selfie. Riko was licking a shockingly massive tentacle dildo, glistening with either saliva or her juices. Probably both, actually, judging by how her eyes were glassy and dazed with lust. She stared straight into the camera.

“Holy shit.” Yohane felt herself throbbing and her body was burning up with need and embarrassment. It was so fucking hot that Riko got off on the same things she did, where had this girl been all her life? The liege from beyond the stars was certainly not about to be outdone by a mere mortal, though!!!

She reached under her bed to fish out the same bumpy silicone egg vibrator she had fucked Hanamaru with last week. Then she turned it on – though her hand was vibrating enough, she was shaking from excitement - and rolled it under one breast, feeling the pinching and tingling arousal spreading across her chest. Her thighs kept grinding together, rubbing against her cock.

She steadied her hands enough to take a few selfies – shorts bulging with her girth, shirt clutched in her teeth, vibrator in her palm underneath one breast. She hastily picked the best one and sent it on its way, trying to ignore how vulnerable her face looked. If she was being honest, she was practically drooling.

 

< Good god your boobs are nice Yocchan

< I wish I could kiss you right now and that, that is big

the thing you were holding was WAY bigger where the hell did you get that monster >

licking your own juices off of it for me... your sacrifice has been accepted. I believe you suficiently have proven your loyalty to YOHANE >

here is your reward, my beautiful supplicant >

 

She snapped another quick photo, feeling herself laughing nervously the whole time, breaking out in a sweat. Her body was reacting really well to this... She peeled down the edge of her shorts and exposed the side of her bulge resting against the elastic (an eldritch abomination had no need for panties!) but without showing her head to Riko yet. She hoped the lighting was enough to capture the pool of precum soaking into her waistband. God she wanted Riko to see her. She sent the photo.

Her teeth were starting to chatter, Yohane's whole body shivering. She moved the vibrator down to her taint to roll her core against it. The tip of her head peeked out of her foreskin and she thrust it loosely against her sheets with each shift of her frame, savoring the gentle friction against its edge and wanting much much more. She clutched a pillow close to her, then hid her face in it.

Yohane couldn't stop imagining Riko licking her cock like she had been doing with the tentacle dildo. She wondered whether Riko would be deft or clumsy-but-enthusiastic, and she realized she didn't care about that nearly as much as what kind of cute sounds her Riri would make. So many cute sounds...

She thought for a moment that they were moving a bit fast since they hadn't even gone on their date yet. Then she promptly disregarded it as she read the next messages.

 

< Yohane excuse me for not knowing whether this is okay to say or knowing about that earlier but

< But I really want um

say whatever you want im not sensitive about it >

< I want to feel your cock inside of me it looks really big and nice and warm

< I cant believe I just admitted that

huuhuhuhuuhuhuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu >

only if you can take the elder god YOHANE'S tentacles at the same time ~ ~~ ~~ >

< Your Riri will try very hard to

< I gotta

< put the phone down

 

They were moving way too fast now, illogically fast. But neither of them wanted to stop right now.

Yohane took one last photo of herself licking her lips with her face half-hidden behind the pillow as she pulled her dick out, rolling her foreskin back to show her Lily how big she had gotten just from thinking about her. Her precum was streaming forth slowly, drooling all over her sheets.

The eldritch girl was throbbing so much that it hurt – had she ever felt this aroused before? She pushed her balls up as she kneaded the vibrator behind them, rubbing her knuckles against her groin and schlicking her fingertips against her dripping head, pressing her face down into the pillows and clutching them. Her mind was flooded with images of her Riri, lusty, debasing herself, depraved and adorable and lovely.

“Lily... why are you so hot...”

She fucked herself against her sheets and her hand and her vibrator until she came with squeaky, shaky breaths, whining for her Riri, lips kissing against the pillow as she groped all over her own thighs.

The waves of drowsiness promptly washed over her as rational thought left her, her mind a happy haze of satisfaction, not even caring that her dick was probably going to be glued to her thigh in the morning if she didn't clean up. It felt so nice to be wanted... to be needed...

She fumbled out a quick “goodn night riri <3” before her brains shut off for the evening.

*   *   *

Riko was on her knees with her clothes pulled away from her core, rolling her whole body over and over again as she steadied herself. She shoved herself down onto the massive tentacle dildo one last time before her voice sang out, her back arching hard as she strained her whole body into the orgasm, fingertips pulling frantically at her clit.

She ghosted her other hand across her lips as she thought of kissing Yohane while she rode her – holy shit she was so big, there was no way a toy could compare to that. She had no idea how much Riko needed that warmth inside of her, the warmth of someone she had loved for so, so long that it hurt her heart just to think about. Warmth spread to her limbs as she rode out her orgasm, hips slowing gradually, her motions becoming lazy.

Riko realized she was making out with the space between her own thumb and forefinger before she knew it. She pulled her hand away from her face, embarrassed, whining.

“Yohane... please kiss me again...”

She sighed as she slumped backwards onto the bed, the dildo sliding out of her slowly and she clenched her throat, letting out a strangled squeal as the aftershocks of orgasm overwhelmed her. Each silicone suction cup on the tentacle bulged out of her one by one and she pawed carelessly at her clit, tracing her slick up to her bellybutton to tug at it with her middle finger. She wanted to feel Yohane deep, so deeply. She thrust her hips high and the dildo finally fell out of her, flopping onto the mattress. It left a sticky image of circles and wiggly edges on her sheets.

Good god. That was the most satisfied she had felt in – well, forever. Thank goodness her friends didn't know she was a freak like this. Riko didn't know WHAT she would do if they found out about this.

She was damn tired all of a sudden, too tired to clean herself up properly. She reached down and managed to pull enough sheets over her to keep herself warm. She saw Yohane's message, squinting against the light of her phone, and replied with her own “Good night my lovely tentacle monster. <3”

She closed her amber eyes and sleep caught up to her in short order.

Her consciousness gradually faded into the beginning of a strange dream.

She lay on her back in a vast field, with her head turned to the side.

Dusty yellow grasses carpeted the rolling hills, scattered lines of trees dotting the landscape into the distance. It looked like it was late fall, or everything around her was dead. The skies were gray and featureless, and the bleak world was silent save for a scant breath of wind.

Riko stared for what seemed like eternity, her mind swirling. She tried to get up a split second later, but could not move. Her limbs wouldn't respond. She could only stare out at the sideways world, prone. She suddenly realized she was in a dream, but that didn't make it any less scary.

Whispers surrounded her. Their speech was warped to glossolalia by the unreality of the dream. It was as though someone was talking in the waking world, with her mind reinterpreting it and mutating it in her dream state. She clung to the fragments of words and phrases like she was drowning, her fear gradually mounting as her sleep paralysis made her start to panic. She tried to make sense of it all.

She only understood a few words right at the end:

 

_lonely_

 

_afraid_

 

_please_

 

*   *   *

Riko woke up, shaking and yelping, to the irritating sound of her last alarm.

What an awful way to start your Friday – disoriented, thirsty, sweating, words from nowhere echoing in your head. The musician couldn't get the strange dream off her mind.

The first part of her dream was a recurring setting for her. Sometimes it was raining. Sometimes vast tornadoes spun far away, unmoving and monolithic on the horizon. But it had never seemed as dead as it did now, and never had she encountered anyone or anything else there. It was a disconcerting change, to say the least. She would rather Yohane have showed up there.

Speaking of which, did she really do – _that_ , with the other girl last night? With someone she just met in real life? She checked her phone and sure enough, there it all was. Did Yohane hate her for forcing her into this? There's no way this was going to work out, right?

The doubt was gnawing at her, magnified by the unpleasant feelings from her dream.

She didn't catch hide nor hair of her girlfriend all day, and she was too caught up in her own thoughts to come up with a coherent text. The only news she heard was from Hanamaru, of all people, who she happened to meet at a little cafe just off of the campus after classes.

Their conversation naturally veered towards Yohane. “I saw your girlfriend! She's been acting super strange,” Hanamaru uttered through a gigantic mouthful of burger.

“How so? Also she's not – my...” Riko laughed nervously as she picked at her salad with an unsteady hand, averting her eyes.

Hanamaru gulped down some of her soda and winked, free from the clutches of the burg for a moment. “If you say so zura! Well, she was super insistent that we look for cryptids for the club zura. Instead of doing what we were supposed to do. She made us promise to look for some pretty strange stuff!”

“So, nothing out of the ordinary?”

“Well other than that she was really quiet zura.”

“Quiet?” That seemed wrong. Dread was pooling in her gut.

“Yeah. Like, morose, like someone died zura...”

The pianist wasn't laughing nervously anymore. She felt invisible hands wrap around her throat. “I see.”

“Hey, Riko... if you broke her heart already then me and Ruby might just steal her from you,” the other girl grinned. But she relented immediately when Riko started to struggle to catch her breath. “Oh shoot, you look like you're about to cry...”

“Sorry. I just get really nervous and it's hard to breathe.” Riko tried to smile, but she felt her expression breaking. Her skin was on fire and her eyes weary. She felt the urge to run and hide.

Hanamaru laid a patient hand on hers, and she realized she was gripping the table with white knuckles. “I'll take care of the check if you need to go zura?”

Riko promised to return the favor, and fled for the safety of her house.

It wasn't Hanamaru's fault for making her feel bad. She couldn't have possibly known. Like the recurring dream, these awful feelings had also haunted Riko for years. The poison of anxiety, intense anxiety, washed through her system. It tainted her thoughts and wrecked her relationships.

Her parents had tried to help her work through it with counseling and with medication, but nothing really ever seemed to be enough; or she would get better for a while, then get bad again. Leaving Tokyo was supposed to help, too, but the road to recovery was extremely long... if it wasn't just a dead-end road all along.

Right now, her heart was about to stop beating and she was hyperventilating. Riko found herself struggling to maintain composure on the bus ride home. Her chest ached. Her whole body hurt.

This was, regrettably, normal.

One of the things that most helped Riko to escape her anxiety was Yohane's doujins. There was just something about becoming a monstrous girl who could run wild, free, unfettered by civilization. No obligations, no artifice, no structures to restrict you. Just one girl who could not even be judged by human standards. Whenever it was too hard to interact with other people, Riko escaped into that fantasy. As long as she read, she was free.

Of course it didn't hurt that Pickton Upman-san drew some ridiculously detailed erotica, but that was beside the point. For her, it was about escaping to a place where civilization could not get you. To be a monster seemed safer to her than to continue dying, choking to death, every time her stupid shitty brain got hung up on something trivial.

Riko got home early. She avoided her family. She tucked into her bed, donning her thickest hoodie and socks to comfort herself.

She tried to read a doujin, but it was just too hard when she felt so much worry about the object of her devotion, the one who illustrated the book... After an hour of itching with nerves and whining uselessly, she tucked the sheets tight around her head and clutched a pillow as she gasped for breath. It hurt too much to think about anything. To do anything.

She cried herself to sleep. She wished she could dream of the type of escape she craved. But no dreams came to soothe her.

*   *   *

Riko woke up on Saturday itchy, irritable, confused and in a daze.

“H-holy shih...t... whath's going on...”

Her sinuses were dried out and awful. She was parched. She rolled out of bed onto cramped and icy feet and struggled to gulp down a glass of water from the dresser next to her bed. It wasn't enough to help. She coughed, dry and raspy.

“Oh... nope. Don't think so.”

It was bright. Way too bright for her to do more than squint. She was sure she was supposed to be up hours ago – and of course, she had missed all her alarms and it was late in the afternoon.

The pianist pulled the curtains tight, scratching at her side idly. It still wasn't dark enough, though, and she fiddled with the edges of the curtains until the only bright gap was at the bottom. It would have to do. She caught her reflection in the full-length mirror she kept next to her dresser.

“I look horrid right now...”

She plopped down on her bed and regarded her disheveled figure in the mirror, eyes squinting, dark red hair mussed and frazzled. She reached up to fix it out of her face, and noticed that her forehead, her ears, even her scalp were all feverish. She tried for a few minutes, unsuccessfully, to look passable for her date with Yohane. She eventually abandoned the idea, resolving to cancel on her and explain that she was really sick...

“When you're sick it's a lot harder to worry about the little things,” she choked out. A sardonic laugh left her lips.

And god was she itchy, her hands kept finding their way up under her hoodie. She swore as her fingertips suddenly dug in and she tasted copper. Riko broke herself out of the automatic response to the irritation, easing her hands away. Her hoodie fell back down with a puff of air. She felt something wet where she had scratched.

“Scratched myself raw...” Riko groaned. She peered down at her fingernails and saw a smear of blood. She pulled up her hoodie again to see what the hell was going on.

The result was jarring. She had a rash, and it had spread fast. Scattered clusters of flat irritated patches marked her belly and flanks, down to her hips. They were gauzy like newly healed skin, oddly enough.

Flashes of panic sparkled in her gut as she realized she was in trouble.

Riko shot off an apology to Yohane for standing her up and explained that she was really sick. She hoped that would be enough. This was going to have to take priority.

She gulped at her dry sinuses for a second, trying to create some sort of plan to deal with this.

“Okay... First order of business, clear mind. Need to eat. Then we can figure this out.”

She slunk downstairs and was relieved that nobody was there to see her in such a sorry state. A glancing blow of pain struck her temple as the bright afternoon light caught her off-guard. She grabbed one of her mom's pairs of sunglasses and threw them on. Riko snatched the first can of soup at the front of the pantry and peeled the lid up, dumping it unceremoniously into a pot. She warmed her hands over the electric heat of the stovetop as it came to a boil.

The soup helped a lot. It didn't taste like anything, but getting some salt in her seemed to be what she needed. The pianist heated up another can of the same seaweed and bonito concoction and slurped it down, cleaning the bowl twice as fast this time.

The girl checked her phone – nothing from Yohane yet. “Not sure if I should feel relieved...”

She flopped back in the chair and stared at the ceiling, letting her limbs splay out. “What do we do about the rash now... and my head... Ugh...”

Riko made her way to the washroom on unsteady feet. She popped a few ibuprofen and drew a hot bath in the hopes that getting her skin hydrated would make it less itchy. Thankfully, the weather had turned around after the snow on Thursday, so she cracked a window for fresh air. She wished she was out on the beach with Yohane instead of cooped up sick and stalking around her home with sunglasses on, like some kind of warty vampire.

She sunk into the bath, tentatively removing her sunglasses and perching them on the edge of the tub. The pianist hissed with relief as the hot water took her in. Immediately her pain and stuffiness and itchiness started to recede.

She closed her eyes.

She leaned back.

She breathed in the steamy air.

It coiled across the ceiling, golden swirls glimmering with light, like waves crashing at the shore. Riko watched it turn for a while, a coil of light. Skewed rainbows glinted off of the edges of the bathroom mirror and peppered the ceiling. This place was safe. Riko told herself that over and over, quieting the worried thoughts that tried to creep up and drag her back into Friday's miasma.

Her imagination drifted.

Riko was laying in the warm water in a cove, sunning herself after a long swim up from the deep, dark depths. She had seen many otherworldly things down there, and she had been gone for a million years. She meditated, laying on her back in the water, looking something like a leviathan Ophelia. Her friends appeared in twos and threes near the rocky shore, in the cool shaded water under the towering trees and cliffs. They waited for her patiently. She did not feel anxious about having to speak in front of them, for she was surrounded by love.

The girl reached around them all with her great, monstrous body – with tentacles, fins, and tail – and she held them all close in the cleansing water. Riko told them tales of what she had seen down there, like a bard of the sea. She used words that were more like raw thoughts than language.

She sung of the swimming creatures that glowed with little teal suns but hid themselves in the darkness. The calm bottom feeders, like the silt and stone had come alive. The stately tube worms perched on geothermal vents.

Her friends swayed in time to her words, rocking the assembly back and forth in the water. They had brought makeshift instruments with them. A chorus of jingles and clicks and chimes and twangs rang out as she sang on. The song was forming in her mind – she'd have to get it on paper later. It reminded her of Thai music she had heard on the radio as a child, though she was sure her memory was warped at this distance.

She wiggled her calves, sending the water sloshing in the bathtub and sending herself tumbling back to reality. The rocking of the water was really soothing, like being spooned. A whimper involuntarily left her lips and she couldn't help but laugh at herself.

“God, I'm pathetic, huh?” She wanted to be held for real by her friends, by Yohane, but this would have to do. Maybe when she was feeling better...

Speak of the little devil, Riko's phone buzzed a few times and she could guess who it was. The musician dried her hands and arms and dangled far out over the edge of the tub to snatch her phone from the sink.

 

goodn night riri <3 >

< Good night my lovely tentacle monster. <3

**Saturday 3:34 PM**

< Hey, I'm really sorry Yohane. I got sick and I can't come today.

< But I guess that's obvious since I'm like seven hours late. I hope you're not too mad at me... sorry again.

**2 Unread Messages**

**4:32 PM**

no its cool i got sick too. shit sucks >

I really hope you feel better riri xoxo n stuff ughhh hhhhhhnnnn >

< Hi Yohane... you're not mad at me? I heard you were feeling off on friday too?

no why would the elder god YOHANE be mad at you her most precious supplicant >

< Oh... I dont know. Things just bug me sometimes.

i got it. ehy but like big hugs and all and youre a big sweetie i just got out of bed on the wrong foot yesterday, we all have a bit of anxiety so i get ya >

<3 >

 

Riko was actually close to tears at how understanding Yohane was, but she didn't want to admit it. “Thank you, Yocchan,” she whispered. Her worries and anxiety were starting to fade for now. She felt really grateful to her girlfriend.

"Yohane is my girlfriend. You can't take her from me," she said out loud, daring her shitty brain to challenge her confidence right now. It did not. It could not.

 

< <3 ❀

wow ! >

oh hey uh. listen theres something bad going on, dont get worried but do you have a weird uh >

a rash >

< You have it too?

okay cus I tried putting stuff on this and its not doing anything >

the curse of the music practice room is foul indeed................ >

< Stuff, huh? how regal.

shud it ill be YOHANE properlry when im not all red and lumpy >

< A bath and some soup and painkillers are helping me feel better. though the rash is still there.

< Do you even have bathtubs in the dorms?

communal baths but I certainly cant go in there looking like a shoggoth half diegested me and spit me out you know . >

 

Riko laughed hard, still folded over the side of the tub. It was charming seeing Yohane let herself be vulnerable like that, though she had to admit she liked her character too. The water sloshed around her. It was quickly becoming tepid. She decided it was time to get out before she got cold and soggy.

 

< Lmao

< I'm going to dry off and crawl back in bed to try and sleep this off. i hope your shower is nice yocchan

< Eat some soup!

same ehehh.. shower better help or im gonna keel over I s2g >

i will >

rest well precious sacrifice RIRI >

 

Riko pulled the plug and dried off. The temperate breeze from the open window felt so good against her clean skin, steam rising to join the billow at the top of the room. When she was finally dry, she tried applying a few things to her rash: some hydrating cream with soothing aloe, and some topical medicine she had fished out of the cupboard, hoping it would help. She felt extra cool and tingly now, and it made her bounce happily on her heels. She also looked for the spot she had scratched raw to bandage it, but she couldn't find it.

“Must not have been that bad after all.”

She stowed her mom's sunglasses and tucked herself away upstairs with a fresh glass of water. Slipping back into her comfort hoodie and a fluffy pair of fresh socks, she slid back under the covers – still a little warm from earlier. Sleep overtook her again almost immediately.

In her dreams, she repeated the sights she had imagined during the bath – hugging her friends close, telling stories and singing songs for days on end, monster girl in a natural state out in the wild.

*   *   *

Riko woke up feeling refreshed on Sunday, to the sound of her first alarm.

“How in the world am I alive after sleeping this much. I was only up for an hour and a half yesterday?... For goodness' sake.”

Her whole weekend was shot, with just Sunday left to catch up on coursework. At least she felt less achy and sinusy, less itchy... still a bit of a headache. Need some water and sodium, and some real food, for sure.

She checked her phone – 8:01 AM and no texts from Yohane. She swiped her other alarms and sent her eldritch girlfriend a quick “Hey, how are you feeling today? <3” Maybe that shower put her Yocchan right to bed as well... she hoped.

The pianist yawned and rolled out of the thickly layered sheets, gingerly setting down onto the wooden floor. “Feeling pretty steady. That's good.”

Riko approached her floor length mirror, wincing into the glint of sunlight coming in under the blinds. She popped a few more ibuprofen and chugged her water before lifting her hoodie to examine the rash.

“Oh god do I have fucking scales?”

Riko covered her mouth with both hands, surprised at her own words for more than one reason. Her eyes bulged at what she thought she saw, then squinted again because it was really too damn bright in here.

She took a moment to collect her thoughts. That was just her eyes playing tricks on her, right? It was gonna just be healed when she took a second glance, right? She stepped closer and lifted her hoodie again.

Yep. Scales.

The rash on her belly and sides and hips was still red and weird around the edges, and it had doubled in size in all directions. The formerly isolated patches had merged together and were dense now. The places that were inflamed yesterday had flattened out into a pattern of tiny overlapping, opalescent scales, pure as the driven snow. At the boundary between old and new rash, she saw the distinctive texture of healing skin and recognized it from yesterday. At the edges it was quite the same as yesterday. Turning around, she saw another patch forming right on her tailbone.

“This is...”

She pinched her cheek. Then she pinched her scaly belly. She rubbed her hand over it and it seemed like her nerves were still working despite the transformation. It was rugose, tough, and inflexible. She pressed her fingers in, then turned around to test the new patch on her back as well.

Riko stared over her shoulder, in awe. “That's real, isn't it? What the hell is going on?”

Then something moved beneath her fingertips.

*   *   *

A few miles away, Ohara Mari was seated in the dining room of her hotel. She had already taken her breakfast. She was dressed in an immaculate but stylish pantsuit, sitting up with perfect posture. She nodded politely to guests as they came and went, exchanging pleasantries with them, offering a winning smile.

A winning smile was all you needed to hide in plain sight.

She read from a warped old notebook, pressing down the frayed pages with one hand, and writing her own notes in clean English letters on a hotel notepad.

Here is what she read:

_Thirty-nine days after date of assumed initial contact with species (ICS)._

_#1's illness is progressing ~~in a fascinating way.~~. It has become apparent that the “rash” affecting #1 is actually the dermis developing into crude scales. They have an oily black hue but are not necrotic. Tissue remains viable. Rash continues to spread upward and downward from thigh at a rate of 0.1-0.2cm/day._

_#1 completed suggested one week regimen of OTC clotrimazole, OTC hydrocortisone, and hypoallergenic moisturizer each applied to disparate affected regions on the thigh and calf. No change to rate of development in antifungal test region; topical steroid and moisturized regions showed increased rate of scale development. Treatments were aborted._

_#1 has still refused professional medical treatment* after repeated suggestions and I will respect her wishes._

_~~Though I do have (possibly unfounded) concerns that~~ Two other individuals may have been affected by species vectors. One has reported unusual weight gain outside of menstrual cycle after close contact with #1 at around twenty-two days ICS. I will label these individuals #3†  & #4 and watch for expected proceeding changes to complexion, development of alopecia areata localized to vellus hairs, and increased libido._

_#3 and #4 are aware of their status at this time. I have cautioned #1, #3, #4 to avoid excessive contact with others and to practice good hygiene at all times._

_I have not devised an appropriate way to quarantine species as I do not have a clear understanding of its nature, though it behaves similarly to both trematoda and ringworm. Will attempt to establish voluntary quarantine space ASAP before further vectors make themselves known._

_All I can do for now is take notes as professionally as possible and remain objective. ~~Which I will admit is not easy when my girlfriend is turning into a fish and doesn't want to see a real doct  
~~_

 

_* In #1's words, ”I'd like to see where this goes (...)”_

_† Upon consideration of the nature of my contact with #1 before identification of the species, I am labeling myself as #2. I do not have unusual symptoms to report at this time._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CURRENT STATUS
> 
>   * Mari: symbiotically living with a tentacle as part of her body. becoming monstrous and weird at a rapidly accelerating rate. it'll probably affect her whole body by summer. I wonder what will happen?
>   * Riko: experiencing a mysterious rash that's spreading fast across her midriff, hips, and lower back. it's turning into scales, dude. wild.
>   * Yohane: got cooties from a flying polyp. probably roughly the same level of infestation as Riko.
>   * Kanan: ??? (recent exposure because Mari wore shorts that said Jumbo Size Spicy Big Dad on them and the pun made her horny)
>   * Dia: ??? (prior exposure, likes long walks at the beach, just a normal gay she swears)
> 

> 
> has it seriously been a month since I last updated? oh god. sorry. november is a bad month. most months are bad anymore though. the world is rough but tentacles are here for us and they just want to help
> 
> hopefully I can increase my rate of productivity soon, but rest assured that I am working on this daily because It Must Be Told. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the recent Chika selfcest fic!
> 
> http://sealedbeastnue.tumblr.com/


	8. “Yohane, we're growing scales!”

**3 Unread Messages  
**

**Sunday, 8:02 AM**

< Hey, how are you feeling today? <3

**8:14 AM**

< call me when you get up.

**8:21 AM**

< Are you up yet????

 

Yohane rustled and grumbled as something buzzed in her lap. She swatted at it, lolling her head back against her bedframe.

Her phone clattered to the floor in front of her. She realized she had crashed out on her floor in the middle of performing a ritual, to banish the curse of the music practice room back to Hastur's domain...

Wait, someone was calling her. She leaned down and fumbled at the phone, clearing her throat.

“Hy'llo. Department of Eldritch Monstrosities.”

“Yohane, are you not up yet?”

“Riko. Huh. What time 'zit?” She blinked. Room was too bright.

“It's almost eight thirty!”

“Oh. Then nope. Call back at noon.”

“Yohane.”

She sounded serious. Yohane cleared her throat again, attempting to get in-character but half-assing it.

“Hum? What does my most precious sacrifice require of me?”

Riko sighed with either exasperation or relief. “Look at your rash.”

“They don't go away overnight.”

“Take a photo of it.”

Yohane grumbled and stuck her arm out, pulling up her robes to expose herself (still going commando, naturally). She aimed the front camera toward what she assumed was the direction of her thighs and blearily rapped at the button a few times.

She glanced at the photos - _wow, too lewd, my fetish is blurry nudes_ \- and sent them to Riko. “Yeah, seems like I'm going back to my people at Innsmouth soon. How's yours look?”

Riko's next words came with a shudder. “You have fucking _scales,_ Yohane. So do I.”

It was too early to deal with this and Yohane barely drawled out her sentences. “Wow, watch your language in the presence of your dark liege-”

“Yohane, we're growing scales!”

“Seems so.” Yohane wobbled unsteadily and gave up. ”Listen, I'm going to try and salvage the rest of my sleep. Sorry. Catch you in a few hours, priestess of Yig.”

Yohane swiped the call and clambered onto the bed, nestling between her sheets. She hooked her elbow and shoulder into the comforter and rolled over, shielding her eyes from the light. She rubbed idly at her navel, teasing at the cool and rugose yet still smooth texture of her scaly skin. Felt like a snake. Neat.

She ignored the buzz of her phone, huffing and trying to tuck in better.

Ten seconds later she was on her feet putting all her focus into holding the phone steady enough to dial.

“Riko wait I'm growing scales what's going on!”

“I just tried to tell you that...” her girlfriend scolded her.

“I was sleepy shut up! What's going on what is this! Why is this happening!”

“ _How should I know?_ ” Riko's voice shook with fear and – something else she couldn't identify.

The eldritch girl scrambled into her bathroom and tore the underarm seam of her robes in her panic to undress. Sure enough, she was decorated with pale reflective scales over most of her inner thighs and her back.

Yohane tried to yank her hair out of the way to see how far it had spread - damn, all the way up to her shoulder blades?

Her girlfriend's voice came through on speakerphone. “I told myself I was going to see a doctor if this got worse but now I'm afraid they would ship me off to some government lab for research! Like in the movies!”

“Nobody's...“ Yohane caught herself getting mad and panicking and also laughing a little, but she tried to calm herself. She steadied her hands against the countertop and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Nobody's shipping anybody off. Let's think about this rationally. Please try to calm down, Riko the anxious star-spawn.”

“You haven't felt the things in your back yet.”

Yohane was about to ask what that was supposed to mean, but then she felt something poke her.

“Oh.”

She placed her palm on the small of her back. Whatever was under her skin writhed against her. Yohane gasped involuntarily.

“Oh!”

“I told you! Straight to the lab! Just like in Uniform Tentacles 4!!”

Yohane was caught off guard by her girlfriend's unexpectedly shit taste and she was unable to stifle a particularly gross laugh. “ _Please_ no, that was the worst installment... You could have at least gone with 2 or 5, those ones were good. Or 3 of course, the best one.”

Riko grumbled in begrudging assent. “That's not the point though.”

Yohane assured her that she got it. She stared over her shoulder and saw – whatever it was – slithering under her skin. She couldn't make out the details, but something was inside her body. She watched, enraptured, for a few minutes.

Yohane whispered, “Riri. Um. Sorry I didn't talk to you on Friday. I had a weird dream and it was bothering me.”

Riko gasped. “Was there a voice? Like something trying to talk to you?”

“Y-yeah,” she replied, haltingly.

“Hey um, Yohane... You don't think this is actually...” Riko mumbled.

“Real tentacles.” Yohane mumbled. She was humbled, and in disbelief.

“Where would these even have come from? Bad convenience store food...?”

“Makes about as much sense as them falling out of the sky.”

”Is... is this okay?”

The eldritch girl took a few minutes to process that. “We both got sick yesterday, but I feel pretty good right now for someone who has uh – s _omething,_ living inside of her body?”

The musician assented, the odd edge still in her voice. “It kind of tickles.”

The eldritch girl realized that her girlfriend sounded _fascinated_.

She was too.

*   *   *

Yohane and Riko agreed to clean up, get some breakfast, and take some time to think about their approach to the situation. They probably couldn't tell anyone about this yet – Yohane couldn't deny the real possibility of being carted off to some government lab.

A familiar wooziness washed over the truly-eldritch girl. The feeling of barely eating food for days. (hey, sometimes you have a deadline coming up and you forget you need to eat...) Having nothing substantial at her place, Yohane threw on some clothing and drove to a fast food joint.

She thoughtlessly ordered whatever their breakfast combo was and scarfed down the plastic egg muffin and dry bacon. She was hungry enough that she took a second spin up to the registers and ordered a pancake combo too. Then another with hash browns.

After scarfing down her fourth breakfast in ten minutes, the girl at the register was giving her a weird look and sounded worried.

“It's n-not for me! The nascent strands and globules of Yog-Sothoth have yet to manifest fully and I must offer-”

“-W-will that be cash, or.... credit...?”

Yohane was sweating nervously by this point and she wondered when her stomach was finally going to tell her she was full. It felt like there was a little furnace burning in her gut, turning all the food into energy and warmth right away. The free ketchup packets were starting to look awfully appealing, too.

She drove down the street to a different fast food place for the fifth and sixth breakfast.

 

**9:15 AM**

the hunger of the outer god YOHANE cannot be sated >

also gonna run out of cash if i get anymore food >

< SAME IT'S SCARING ME A LITTLE

< My mom's giving me the stink eye

< This is um... ghh maybe if I get some sun and fresh air I'll feel better

an eldritch one such as myself has no need for such mortal follies >

great cthugha burns brighter than a thousand suns>

**9:28 AM**

< Go outside, Yocchan. Get some sun.

ψ(* >> n<<)ψ dont wanna >

< Trust me. just do it

 

Yohane waddled back to her car, full to the brim with food. Or at least she should have been waddling by now, but she felt perfectly fine besides being warm and hungry... She wondered where one would go to get sun.

“A park, maybe? Or on the beach...?”

It took her a few minutes of confused driving to realize that she could get sun literally anywhere.

“Curse this pasty mortal shell of mine... I shall be as red as Ruby's hair soon,” she grumbled as she pulled into the student parking and got out of the car. She took off her jacket and held it limply in one hand, uncomfortable at the idea of “getting sun” like she was a tomato or something. What good could it possibly do?

But she trusted Riko, so she took a stroll around the quad, checking her phone in boredom. A few other students lingered around the quad, and an improvised game of capture the flag was going on down at the other end. Yohane plopped down on a bench far away from anyone else after a few minutes of idling. It felt awkward to just be _walking around_ alone, too. She wished Riko was here.

Gradually the sun warmed her, to match the heat burning in her stomach. It was surprisingly... pleasant. Like being in an onsen, or bundled up warm under fluffy sheets. Her whole body felt satisfied and she relaxed, laying back on the bench. She gingerly pulled the edges of her camisole and her paint-spattered jeans to obscure her ailment from nosy onlookers.

She had to concede the point to Riko. She felt so happy she could cry! She wiggled her toes and kicked her shoes off, to get more sun on herself. She closed her eyes and let the sun fall across her face for a nice long while. Yohane felt as though she could draw like this, for a long time... In her secluded spot she couldn't hear any of the sounds from up on the quad.

The air was quiet and it whispered past her ears. She gazed up at the sky and felt like she was at the bottom of the ocean, all alone, in peace. Basking.

 

**10:04 AM**

you werent kidding aaaa >

is this how mortals enjoy recreation... >

< Yeah actually

YOHANE nods sagely >

indeed...... >

< Do you still feel hungry?

 

“Excuse me. Miss Tsushima Yoshiko.”

Yohane was in the middle of typing “nope” and she almost said it out loud. “That's YO-HA-NE to you,” she said instead. She covered her face with a hand and squinted to see who was accosting her.

Peering down through her soul were the icy blue eyes of the student council president.

Yohane scrambled to a sitting position and bowed her head. “My sincerest apologies for my rudeness.”

Dia rolled her eyes and held her palms out. “Relax, I'm not here to reprimand you. I don't know what Chika and You told you about me, but... may I sit?”

The eldritch girl nodded. Dia primly sat next to her. She was in a sundress, quite different from Yohane's slovenly outfit.

“My sister has told me a lot about you,” she began.

She yelped. “Ruby?? Sh-she didn't tell you about my-”

“Your art? Yes, she certainly did. She said you're quite talented and have made a name for yourself in the outsider art community.” Dia nodded sagely. “I'm glad to have someone of your talent at this school, though I'm quite surprised you aren't in the art program.”

Yohane tried to stop whatever grin-grimace-squint her face was doing. “Indeed... Yohane is well-known as an outsider... to this very universe.”

The student council president started to laugh, but covered it with a cough. It seemed that they were both trying to maintain a facade.

“That's not what I came to speak with you about though. Has a woman by the name of Ohara Mari approached you recently?”

“Yes, I recall a mortal by that name... a powerful cleric, perhaps an agent of Nyarlathotep,” she decreed in her deep voice.

“She's certainly an agent of something. Did she ask you to do any unusual – _favors?_ ”

The eldritch girl yawned. “Not me personally, but a few of the other girls in the club rode with her in her car. Oh, and she told us about research scholarships.”

The president hummed. She took a good long look at Yohane, sizing her up. It made her feel like Dia knew something she didn't. “D-did you need anything else, inquisitive one?” she offered.

“Are you doing well today?”

“I'm perfectly fine, thank you!” she laughed nervously. “My vessel is kept healthy by my connection with the beyond... and um...”

Dia sighed and relented. She stood. “Stay out of trouble. I'll be seeing you in classes on Monday, Pickton Upman-san.”

 

**10:09 AM**

KUROSAWA RUBY >

WHY DID YOU TELL HER >

< sorry!!! ,_,

good god shes like a weirdo poser mall cop what is your sisters DAMAGE >

< she's really persistent!! I'm sure you can see that. please be nice to her though! she means well...

grrrrrr fine YOHANE will not take her as a sacrifice today >

but should she cross me again she shall know the flames of cthugha >

< don't set my sister on fire please Yoshiko. I'll ask Hanamaru to scold you if I have to...

ITS YOHANE >

 

< Do you feel hungry anymore?

**10:17 AM**

nope im good now >

sorry i had to warn off a rival cultist >

the student council prez was snoopin around >

< Oh jeez she didn't see your thing right?

youre the only one who can see my thing riko >

< You know what...

◥(ฅº￦ºฅ)◤ >

< Anyway

< It feels so good doesn't it... ❀

this custom of human mortals... of '' sunning themselves '' . it is most peculiar but pleasing >

hey riko? >

< What's up

i kind of want to keep them >

< … Let's give it a few more days? I don't think we're in like imminent danger or anything...

yeah. >

*   *   *

So they gave it a few more days. And the scales spread, and spread, and spread... and their bodies kept changing.

On Monday, Yohane ran across the club leaders while getting a snack at the student center.

“Sorry to hear you got sick... But! You guys can tell us next week about your club homework!” Chika offered.

“Uhuhu... there is no need for such a thing.” Yohane leaned back pompously, covering an eye with one hand. “We will be completing our fell mission by the appointed hour.”

“Have you seen the new building that's going up at the back of campus?” Like usual, Chika jumped topics at light-speed.

“I saw it,” Yohane said plainly, still posing. “It looks like a storage shed or something boring like that. It's out in the middle of nowhere in the woods.”

You leaned towards her face, blinking. Her eyes lit up. “Why do you always hide your face, Yoshiko? Your skin is like, perfect.”

“Wow, you're not kidding! What kind of cleanser do you use?” Chika beamed.

The eldritch girl was so flattered that she forgot to even correct her name. “The vessel granted to me by the outer ones is fully self-maintaining, engineered to seduce mortals to do my bidding...”

You hummed. “Darn, I was hoping you had some secret to get rid of blackheads or zits.”

Chika leaned in close and inspected her face. Yohane scowled at her. “It's almost like you have no pores!”

That caught her off guard. Yohane politely excused herself and darted off to the bathroom to look at her face. Sure enough, her pores were literally gone over most of her face. She examined her arms and sensed a change there, too. They felt dry and sensitive.

She scratched her arm, and her body hair came off in a big streak under her fingernails. Yohane gawked at the mat of thin dark hairs she now held in her hand.

Of course she had to make it symmetrical, so she did the other arm too. And when she got home, the rest of her body hair had shed. It clung to the inside of her shirt and pants and underwear like a dog's fur.

“Huh. Good riddance I guess?” It was a drastic change, but not unwelcome. Thankfully, she still had the hair on her head. It would be _really unfortunate_ if she suddenly went bald.

The things growing in her back wiggled excitedly.

*   *   *

On Tuesday she tried to avoid unnecessary encounters by going to the dorm cafeteria instead, but this time she ran across Hanamaru and Ruby. Befitting her terrible luck, she got roped into an argument.

“...And that's why I'm scolding you,” Hanamaru huffed. “So you'd better apologize.”

“Okay, okay! Sorry Zuramaru!” Yohane was eager to get out of there so she could get sun and stuff onigiri into her face, but Hanamaru grabbed her by the wrist and sat her back down.

“Say it to Ruby zura!”

Yohane turned toward the smaller girl. “Sorry for telling you I was going to light your nosy sister on fire.”

Ruby waved her hands, flustered. “H-Hanamaru, I told you I changed my mind about this! You didn't have to scold her!”

“Well, I'm doing it anyway zura. Yoshiko has terrible manners sometimes.” Hanamaru chowed down on her burger with one hand, still holding Yohane there with her other hand.

“That's YO-HA-NE to you, sacrifice. You didn't have any trouble remembering my name when I was... uhuhu...”

Ruby turned beet red and squealed, “S-stoooop!!!” which earned the stares of the girls at the nearby tables.

Yohane was eager to get out of there and get all of the eyes off of her. The last thing she wanted to do right now was to stand out.

She stood up swiftly to try and throw Hanamaru off, turning to leave and bidding her friends a goodbye for now. She made her way toward the door. Something was caught on her arm and she yanked away from it.

“Z-zuraaaa!!”

“Yohane! What are you doing!” Ruby squealed from somewhere behind her. There were dull thudding sounds and then a clang of silverware and plates crashing to the floor.

Yohane looked down to see Hanamaru still holding on to her arm, dangling from her and wiggling around and freaking out. Her chair dragged behind her, her feet hooked behind the horizontal stretcher... and the big round table they sat at was coming along for the ride, too.

The eldritch girl gave an experimental tug at her friend, and the table wobbled towards her with ease, drinks sloshing and more silverware tumbling to the floor. Hanamaru let go and flopped onto the floor as well, grunting as she landed. Ruby stared, frozen in horror, and most of the other girls in the cafeteria stared too.

“Wh-what what the heck zura! When did you get this strong zuraaa!”

Yohane was out of there in seconds flat, permanently abandoning the cafeteria to the shoggoths. There would be no going back there for a while.

That night, she tested out her body at her apartment. Lacking a useful baseline, it was tough to judge _how much_ stronger she was, but Yohane was pretty sure she couldn't lift her bed above her head yesterday. Her clothing felt rather snug too.

The things growing in her back throbbed and writhed.

*   *   *

On Wednesday Yohane woke up to a migraine.

All day she felt a bit off again, and she was worried she was getting legitimately sick this time. Spots swam in her vision, yellow streaks appeared on walls, staticky black flecks and floaters caught her eye constantly. It was infuriating and worrying. She tried to ride it out and she vowed to discuss it with Riko.

Yohane and Riko had been busy with the start of the semester, but they tried to text each other whenever they could. They'd taken to hanging out on the roof of the unused radio building between classes to get some sun... and to eat the extra food they had to bring without getting any weird looks. They were a bit too dazed and overwhelmed to play with each other beyond casual makeouts. Which were, of course, delicious.

Both of them were amazed they weren't burnt to a crisp by getting this much sun.

After classes ended on Wednesday, the eldritch girl snuck over to the radio building undetected, but she was intercepted by two girls at the door.

“Going somewhere, _bella?_ ”

“Not really,” Yohane lied. _What the hell, Riko? Why did you tell me the coast was clear when this big pain in the ass is down here?_

“You weren't sneaking in for a _panty raid,_ were you?” Mari cooed.

Yohane scoffed and averted her eyes, looking for a way to get out of dodge. "Nobody lives here. I lack any panties of which to raid."

“Oh! You know, if the antenna on top of the building was running you'd be _french fried_ by now!” Mari winked at her.

“It's not, right?” the eldritch girl squeaked. It would put a real damper on her week if it turned out she was getting radiation poisoning.

The other girl pinched Mari's cheek and the school's owner moaned, pretending to be pleasured by it. “Mari, hush. Don't scare her.” She added, “Matsuura Kanan,” with a smile directed yowards Yohane.

“Tsushima Y-Yohane,” she replied. “Oh, you're the diving shop owner?”

“Not the owner,” she smiled sheepishly. “I just run the front end, and I'm a diving instructor. Hey Mari, do you wanna buy the dive shop off of my gramps for me?”

“I might have something better for you soon, _my lovely!_ ” the blonde winked at Kanan.

Yohane wondered how Mari could be wearing a long-sleeved pantsuit with an ascot and sunglasses in this beautiful weather when she could be getting sun instead. But she dispelled the thought. It wasn't like anyone else at this school had parasites growing inside of them.

“Listen, I know you own the school and all, but that's PRIME sunbathing territory up there. As one of the fabled elder things who have been frozen beneath the Antarctic ice for aeons, I must demand the use of this facility for research purposes.”

“Sure, _pas de problème!_ Anything for a girl with pretty _shiny_ eyes like yours. Besides, you're in the Aquatic Research Society.” The blond gave a curtsy and gestured towards the door like a butler. ”Research away!”

“You know, you can come sunbathe out behind the dive shop if you really want to!”

Yohane nodded and gave a noncommital thanks, having shamefully lost both her epic confrontations with Mari thus far. But something Mari said stuck in Yohane's craw. It bugged her as she climbed the stairs...

Behind her, she vaguely heard the two girls start talking about the new building that was going up on campus.

“Hey, Riri!” Yohane waved at her girlfriend as she came out of the roof access. The pianist sat all the way across the roof, staring out over the bay. She held up a hand, but she didn't turn towards Yohane.

The artist jogged over and took a seat. “Riko, do my eyes look weird today?”

“We might be in over our heads, Yohane,” Riko whispered. She still didn't turn toward her.

“Why? What's wrong?”

Riri turned towards her and Yohane instantly saw it.

Thin silver and gold tendrils growing into her irises. They shone like liquid metal in the midday sun. It was obvious even against Riko's amber eye color, and Yohane realized she had probably been walking around exactly like this all day too.

On top of that, they had also suddenly lost the hair on their legs and arms and bodies, and they were putting on raw bulk and getting stronger...

“Yocchan, is this really happening? I feel like I'm dreaming right now.”

Yohane was feign to admit that she might not be such an expert on real-life tentacles. “I don't know. I feel like I've been watching this happen to someone else all week. How do your scales look?”

Riko started to take her shirt off to reveal the state of her infection and Yohane almost screamed in surprise. She halted, yanking her shirt back down and hiding her face. “I can't believe I almost did that.”

“It's a lot different in person, huh,” Yohane uttered, hiding her face.

They turned away from each other, fidgety and shy. Yohane hemmed and hawed for a minute before turning her back to Riko's and leaning up against her, and Riko reclined into her too. The things growing inside them thumped and flailed around, jostling against one another. It was almost like getting a back rub from something in between them.

They turned their heads and peered out over the sea, calm breeze causing their hair to flutter together. They were both in a daze from the warmth of the sun before long. But they had a task to get finished, tentacles or not.

“Beach?”

“Indeed.”

*   *   *

It was going to be hard to scout the locals as they had planned, since they were turning into monsters. So the pair decided to do their own exploration.

Yohane and Riko found an old fishing trail behind the building and hiked down the hill, skidding on the matted leaves and slick clay mud. They clung to the trees and precariously braced themselves against a steep slide with no traction. They laughed and enjoyed the adventure at first, but about halfway down the hill the trail started getting dicey. It was tough for them to keep their footing, even with their newly increased strength.

“This was a terrible idea, Yocchan! We should have just driven down to the coast!” Riko squealed through gritted teeth.

“Nonsense! The life of an immortal being must necessarily be fraught with adventure!”

Yohane then snapped the next sapling in half, fell on her ass, and slid down the hill.

She tumbled and Riko shouted and Yohane felt herself whack off of a tree trunk and she came to a halt face-down in the sand. Her eyes were full of stars and her head swam. “Damn that – that's really gonna sting...”

Her hands were abraded and her face and knees and elbows were scraped and muddy and bleeding a little. She tasted copper. She spat red. Her lip was busted too.

Her girlfriend slid down the hill on her heels and rushed up to kneel next to her. “Jesus, Yohane! Are you alright?”

“I do not answer to the name of foreign gods or their prophets, Lily.” She poked the other girl in the nose. “You shall address comments regarding deities directly to me.”

“Never mind, I'm going back. See you later.”

“Wait!”

They cleaned themselves up as best as they could with their bottled water and some tissues, drying Yohane's scrapes and cuts. They kicked off their muddy shoes and ruined socks and assessed their surroundings.

It was a meager beach, which wasn't saying much since it looked like low tide. The sand was littered with twigs and mucky yellow foam washed up from the little waves brushing up against the coast. A few larger pieces of driftwood clustered up near the treeline, and there were some great lumps of beach tar further in towards the bay.

The low waves of the calm sea appeared to rise before them, like a massive hill extending far out into space. Fata morgana were visible far away, probably from a shipping lane way out over the water. The sun hung alone in the middle of it all, afternoon skies still a placid blue. And aside from the distant sounds of construction up at the school, a tranquil quiet lingered.

“It's not much to look at, but it's actually kind of nice to be down here, isn't it Yocchan?”

Yohane nodded. She felt calm near the waves, even on this neglected spit of beach. Their rhythm was lulling her. Being down here was like being out in the wilderness, out there in the middle of nowhere away from anyone else. She could truly come to appreciate this, especially if she got to see it with Riko, whose little smiles and subtle expressions always made her heart flutter. Man, this whole week was a real sea-change...

The girls joined hands and made their way up the beach, taking their sweet time.

“Did the bleeding stop?”

“Yeah, actually. I think I'm starting to heal already.”

“That wouldn't be the weirdest thing that happened to us this week,” Riko laughed.

“Nonsense. This vessel is a gift granted to me by-”

“By Cthugha, I got it.” Riko was all smiles, and it was contagious.

“Your eyes look pretty like that, Riri.”

“Yours do too...”

“Is this a date now?”

The musician nodded.

A date under uncertain circumstances, for sure. The beach opened up past a huge cluster of tree roots and the open sea lay before them.

The girls walked stealthily and they started to catch a few glimpses of sea life. There were a few ghost crabs loitering sleepily under the driftwood and they scuttled away into burrows, leaving tiny fretted tracks in the sand. Gulls lingered in the distance, always keeping just ahead of the pair. Around one corner a lot of tiny firefly squids were washed up dead behind a cluster of boulders, still glowing with the last traces of phosphorescence. It made Riko get all choked up. Yohane squeezed her hand tight and walked her past them quickly.

“Poor little things...”

“Nothing lives forever, Riri.” She hugged her tight.

“But they're just so tiny and innocent...”

But Riko was still bummed out, so they plopped down at the water line, away from that place. The waves rushing in felt good on their legs, and Yohane dug her toes into the cool sand. She felt flecks of seawater dry on her calves, the salt crumbling back into sand. Her lower back felt itchy. Her body was telling her she needed to be in the water. She tried to ignore it.

Riko slid up to her. She leaned over and laid her head in Yohane's lap. The musician looked up at her with sad, shining eyes and it was all she could do not to kiss her right there. But that's not what Riko wanted or needed right now in such a vulnerable state.

“Hey, Yocchan...”

“Y-yes!”

“Can you hold me like this?”

She gulped and nodded, and Riko closed her eyes. Yohane held her head there. The tension started to leave the eldritch girl's shoulders, and she felt the muscles in her lower back relax against the wiggling things inside of her. Her skin was still really itchy, though. Her body wanted her to get in the water.

The tide started to come in as they relaxed on the beach, with Yohane petting Riko's hair. One especially tall wave rushed in and soaked Yohane's pants, but it didn't get up to Riko. Damn if it didn't make her even more irritated afterward! She couldn't scratch her legs without moving her girlfriend's head. She tried to wait it out but it was bothering her too much and she reached back under her shirt.

Something was poking out of her skin.

It felt like the stem of a plant, and it was fuzzy like a fern. It tried to coil around her finger and she pulled her hand away slowly.

“Riri. Please calmly get up and tell me what's growing out of my back.”

Riko sat up with horror and fascination lining her features. She nodded and pulled the back of Yohane's shirt up.

“It looks like a – fan worm. Like, the ones that grow at the bottom of the ocean. We saw them in the books Ruby found, in club last week.”

“ _Oh worm?_ ” Yohane whispered.

“You don't have to pretend to not be scared.” Riko hugged her and she felt her chest get all warm and fuzzy. Yohane melted into her touch.

”It's frilly and tiny. I's got a cool pattern on it? It looks like it should be in the water, it's drooping...”

They stared into one another's filamented eyes and they knew what they had to do. They were both too damn curious to let this opportunity slip away – danger be damned, they were becoming monster girls. The pair walked into to the water and submerged themselves up to their chests in the lukewarm sea.

As they soaked they started to finally feel relief from the incessant itch, much moreso than bathing in fresh water in their bathtubs. They felt a bit irritated as the tendrils in their backs poked out like little fans, but then the endorphin rush came as they realized this was actually happening. There were quite a few of them, it turned out – dozens at least, peeking out from underneath individual scales, like they were hiding.

The pair stroked each other's backs gently, teasing and playing with the tiny appendages. They could feel little sensations coming through them. Nothing distinct, but something was opening up in their minds. Some new form of perception Yohane couldn't put a finger on yet. Like a feeling, or a thought, or an idea.

What Yohane did feel, with certainty, was lucidity.

The events of the past week were smeared against her mind, a whirlwind in which she felt like she was just along for the ride. Watching it all happen to someone else. Now here she floated in the warm water and bright sun and salty air with her girlfriend, with tentacles growing out of her body, with her skin transforming into scales. Feeling and seeing and knowing that this was real.

Riko suddenly got right up in Yohane's face. “We've got to keep them.”

Yohane averted her eyes for a moment. “What if we can't go back?”

The musician shook her head. “I wouldn't want to go back if I can keep them safe. They're so tiny and precious, I feel like they would break if I rejected them...”

“What if they're like cordyceps or something?” Yohane stared right back at Riko, posing the question they had both been avoiding. “What if they're brainwashing us into keeping them in us? What if they're _eating us?_ They're already in our heads.”

“Do you really think that, Yohane?” Riko whispered. “Isn't this what you've always wanted?”

The eldritch girl hissed, “It is! Yohane has always wanted to be different! It's just – it's scary! Haven't we got real life to worry about? How are we supposed to raise fucking tentacles in our bodies, Riko!”

“I don't know.” The musician shook her head. “But I want to find a way.”

Yohane shut her eyes and shouted, “I do too! I've always wanted to get out of this life, it's choking me! It's all wrapping around my neck! I don't want to be an adult... I want to be a monster!”

Riko stared at her, then burst into laughter, splashing around in the water. “I'm surprised you haven't already started playing it up!”

“Huh?”

She painted a picture for Yohane. “You're already practically a monster by anyone else's standards. You've got scales, tentacles living inside you, and wild ideas. Why do you need to worry about real life? Your dream is right in front of you and you're scared of it.”

Yohane's eyes lit up as Riko spoke. Her imagination started to run wild.

Why _should_ she live in the real world?

Plenty of young people fell into NEET-hood and they managed to survive just fine. Would it be so hard to live on her own with her “job” as a doujin author? She was becoming an actual real-life monster girl, as far as she knew. Hell, she might be swimming around slurping down raw fish and wrestling sharks soon. ANYTHING could be happening. This was her chance to be whatever she pleased. To escape the bonds of society. Maybe permanently.

“You're right. The great Yohane is... at long last... manifesting her powers, in the flesh, by her connection with the outer gods...”

“Right? Like that!” Riko smiled sweetly.

“I require adherents. Worshippers.”

“Well, you've got me at least, and your drawing stream. And maybe we can mess with the club a little bit...”

“Star-spawn Riri. Will you...” Yohane's cheeks burned up at what she was about to propose. “Will you fall into the outermost reaches of eldritch depravity with me?”

Riko nodded as she slid up to Yohane and pressed their lips together. “I'd like nothing more, Yohane.”

In that moment of commitment, out there in the sea, Yohane and Riko each thought the other was the most beautiful creature to ever walk the earth.

*   *   *

Not very far away, another burgeoning tentacle monster settled in for a bath in her hotel room.

Mari reclined into her bath and felt the familiar relief of soaking her tender, soft scales. Her tentacle wriggled its way out of her and lay across her lap, nuzzling into her hip. She giggled and tickled it with her fingers, laughing and the tentacle thrashed around frantically. Water splashed out of the bath.

“We're about to have some new friends really soon, girl. _Oh! Yes!”_ Her tentacle bobbed its snout around, returning to its resting place on her hip shortly. It flared its little fins out and tried to tickle her back, but she slid her hand under it and tutted it.

“Now now! _Rascal!”_

She peered down to admire her body. Her scales had spread all the way to the tips of her toes now, and most of her chest and upper arms and neck were covered too (though she couldn't really see her own neck...)

Mari might have been having fun, but there were some concerns weighing on her mind today.

For one, her test subjects had been developing far, far faster than she had anticipated. Certainly faster than herself. She didn't let on to her co-conspirator Kanan, but Yohane's eyes told the whole story. That change was something that hadn't started for almost a year for Mari.

She wondered if there was any other way to speed up the construction on campus to give them all some shelter from prying eyes sooner rather than later. The last thing Mari wanted was to lose her chance – for those two courageous girls to give up because they had to hide their bodies away. She had to do everything she could to keep them from de-infesting.

She sighed.

Without warning, Mari's body started to feel extremely - _soft._ She had to focus with all her might to drive the feeling away.

That was the other concern. It seemed that her transformation was taking a left turn, fast – it was much different than any of the other girls' transformations recorded in the notebook. She seemed to be going quite literally to pieces. Whenever she relaxed, her body tried to fall apart on her. It felt like she was turning into jelly.

She had taken to wearing body-covering clothing and tight underlayers to help herself feel secure. She wondered if something out of her control was about to happen.

A pang of dread gripped her. She rejected it as best as she could. This change HAD to happen, not just for her sake. They had to transcend their humanity, there was far too much to gain and so much to lose... and there really wasn't much time to waste.

Mari was so, so tired of fighting the urge to fall apart, though. Constantly fighting the nagging dread that what she was doing was wrong, or that it was hurting her – maybe it was even killing her. She tried to take her mind off of all of it for just a little while, searching her memories for some direction. Some way to relieve her dread.

The next step forward.

She thought of the last journal entry she had transcribed as she leaned back and closed her eyes, slowing her breathing...

_Sixty-five days after ICS._

_#1's scale development continues, having advanced another 1cm/day for the past two days. Rate of development is accelerating. We still have not developed any methods to combat the spread. Full affected area extends into calves and mid-abdomen. Scale color continues to change, hues now ranging from black to deep crimson mottling the surface of the affected area._

_Filamentary intrusions are now apparent in eyes, taking on a more vibrant hue than #1's existing eye color. Filaments appear anywhere from carmine to fuschia depending on angle of incidence. Concurrent symptoms include deformation of pupil and optical hallucinations and an increase in anxiety. We discussed and I have advised #1 to wear protective eyewear or cosmetic contacts to safeguard mental well-being and reduce stress in social settings._

_#1's diet also continues to change, with preferences for seafood/sea produce dominating. Fresh fruit has also been a common dietary need._

_#3 and #4 scale development is progressing slowly, displaying small regions spread over calves and chest, respectively. Noteworthy is that the scales have begun to show signs of color other than skin tone or irritated patches. #3's scales reflect yellow and golden under strong light sources and appear similar to #1's. #4's are far more articulate than the other girls' and appear to have formed more like tiny circles or tightly clustered nodules than more “traditional” scales._

_#2 continues to show no symptoms aside from increased hair and cuticle growth. Given the irrelevancy of these to symptoms presented by #1, #3, and #4 I cannot conclude that this represents an infection. I will continue to follow best hygienic practices._

_At this time I do not have any medical theories to combat the spread of infection, though certain factors seem to relate to how fast it spreads. ~~It frightens me to consider the implications of these factors in light of my personal relationship to #1, so~~ I will wait until I have proven them out to note them here._

_I have, however, established a safe voluntary quarantine space at great personal expense. #1, #3, and #4 have agreed to remain here for the time being. The infected strongly prefer bathing, swimming, exercise, art, music, and general research above all other pursuits, so I have chosen a location that can best suit these needs for the purposes of convalescence * .  
_

_Before starting this journal entry, an invitation was extended to #5 through #9 to join us in the voluntary quarantine space until such time as a cure could be found. I am awaiting their replies._

_Of chiefest concern at this time, above all else, is perhaps the following: None of the affected individuals have expressed interest in seeking professional medical advice and seem to be taking this in stride. I do not know whether this is a comorbid mental condition related to the infection. Because I cannot force them to seek medical advice, I have no way of confirming this theory._

~~_* Though I can't help but wonder if this won't make it spread faster._ ~~

Mari was slowly falling asleep in the bathtub as she pondered the last journal entry. She held her situation in her hands like a puzzle, turning it over and over. The water grew tepid, then cool, then cold around her as she drifted into sleep.

An hour passed.

Two hours passed.

She felt a deep sense of serenity.

She felt a thought intrude, from somewhere else.

Mari Ohara jerked awake as the water made it up to her ears. “ _Oh! Not so splendid!_ ”

Except, she didn't move at all, and the words didn't come out.

Something felt different... like part of her had broken. It felt like her nerve endings and muscles were pushing against a water balloon. Pressure rapidly built in her ears and her face was burning up. Her eyes were watery and her vision blurred.

She looked down at herself to find that her lower half had vanished, including the tentacle. At the same time, the bath water was suspiciously cloudy and thick.

 _I guess I shouldn't have relaxed quite this much,_ Mari thought, as her senses dissolved away and she fell into a deep, peaceful dream.

_Maybe this is the way forward?_

*   *   *

The next morning when room service came around, they found Mari Ohara looking bright and cheery and energetic, as usual. The staff that brought her breakfast were surprised to see she was finally dressing light for the spring weather. She seemed like a woman with a plan.

Mari Ohara had been touched by a revelation, and she had reciprocated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CURRENT STATUS
> 
>   * Mari: ??? (turned into a liquid and then went back to normal it seems... but on the inside... what has changed?)
>   * Riko: scaly. eyes are going all weird. extra strong. extra soft. no body hair. big hungy. tentacles are living inside the pair's backs. they are keeping them.
>   * Yohane: if one guy pushed another guy into a sarlacc pit would that be fucked up or what
>   * Kanan: ??? (recent exposure because Thats Pussy Babe, and is hanging around Mari)
>   * Dia: ??? (prior exposure, is persistent in inquiring about Mari's goals...)
> 

> 
> good evening my lovelies. thanks for reading. the next chapter will set up for the climax of part one. there will also be a few climaxes, because Yohane and Riko have not had their first time together yet. and yes, for the record, Uniform Tentacles is a good series but Yohane is right, #3 is the worst. read #6 too it's pretty good. this is one of my influences.
> 
> please continue to speculate !
> 
> thanks to lTofSmitia for proofreading and being a very encouraging and lovely person! https://archiveofourown.org/users/lTofSmitia/pseuds/lTofSmitia
> 
> ALSO I forgot to mention but I am looking to commission an artist to draw These Characters once they are tentaclized. I have messaged a few people but they haven't... even replied... which is lame. if you are interested please get in touch with me:
> 
> http://sealedbeastnue.tumblr.com/


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